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LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

GIFT  OF 

PACIFIC  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY. 


succession 


-.84676 


Class 


4-.  Class 


Book 
Accession  No.  ..b%.t  £...... 


GIFT    OF 


A 

And  he  shall  judge  among  many  people,  and  rebuke  strong 
nations  afar  off ;  and  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plow- 
shares, and  their  spears  into  pruninghooks:  nation  shall  not  lift 
up  a  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more. 
But  they  shall  sit  every  man  under  his  vine  and  under  his  fig 
tree;  and  none  shall  make  them  afraid;  for  the  mouth  of  the 
Lord  of  hosts  hath  spoken  it.— MICAH  IV,  5,  6. 

And  he  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men,  for  to 
dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth.— ACTS  XVII,  26. 


SEED  TIME 

AND 

HARVEST. 


Pictures   from  the  Official  Records,  wherein  are  seen 

LABOR, 

AGRICULTURE, 

and  TRADE, 
Sowing  the  Seed,  in  order  that 

RAILROADS, 

BANKS,  and 

FACTORIES 
May  Reap  the  Harvest- 


BY  S.  S.  KING, 

Author  of  BOND-HOLDERS  AND  BREAD-WINNERS 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  AUTHOR, 
KANSAS  CITY,  KANSAS. 


DEDICATION. 


THIS  BOOK  IS 

DEDICATED  TO  MY  WIFE, 

WHOSE  CONVICTIONS  OF  RIGHT  HAVE  EVER  BEEN 

AN  AID  AND  INSPIRATION  TO  CORRECT  POLITICAL  PRINCIPLES; 

WHO,  SEEKING  TO  LIGHTEN  THE  BURDENS  OF  TOIL, 

AND  SOFTEN  THE  SORROWS  OF  WANT, 
SUGGESTED  MANY  OF  THE  THOUGHTS  HEREIN  WRITTEN. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress, 

BY  S.  S.  KING, 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C., 
in  the  year  is'.M. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


A  SCENE  FROM  AN  OLD  PLAY. 

Place,  A  Street  in  Rome.    Time,  About  490  B.  C. 

Enter  a  company  of  mutinous  citizens,  with  staves,  clubs  and  other 
weapons. 

First  citizen.  We  are  accounted  poor  citizens,  the  partricians 
good.  What  authority  surfeits  on  would  relieve  us:  if  they  would 
yield  us  but  the  superfluity,  while  it  were  wholesome,  we  might  guess 
they  relieved  us  humanely;  but  they  think  we  are  too  dear:  the 
leanness  that  afflicts  us,  the  object  of  our  misery,  is  an  inventory  to 
particularize  their  abundance;  our  sufferance  is  a  gain  to  them.  Let 
us  revenge  this  with  our  pikes,  ere  we  become  rakes:  for  the  gods 
know  I  speak  this  in  hunger  for  bread,  not  in  thirst  for  revenge. 

Enter  Menenius  Agrippa,  friend  of  Coriolanus. 
Menenius.    Why,  masters,  my  good  friends,  mine  honest  neigh- 
bors, will  you  undo  yourselves  ? 

Citizen.    We  cannot,  sir,  we  are  undone  already. 
Menenius.    I  tell  you,  friends,  most  charitable  care 
Have  the  patricians  of  you.    For  your  wants, 
Your  suffering  in  this  dearth,  you  may  as  well 
Strike  at  the  heaven  with  your  staves  as  lift  them 
Against  the  Roman  state,  wrhose  course  will  on 
The  way  it  takes,  cracking  ten  thousand  curbs 
Of  more  strong  link  asunder  than  can  ever 
Appear  in  your  impediment.    For  the  dearth, 
The  gods,  not  the  patricians,  make  it,  and 
Your  knees  to  them,  not  arms,  must  help.    Alack, 
You  are  transported  by  calamity 
Thither  where  more  attends  you,  and  you  slander 
The  helms  o'  the  state,  who  care  for  you  like  fathers, 
When  you  curse  them  as  enemies. 

Citizen.  Care  for  us !  True,  indeed !  They  ne'er  cared  for  us  yet : 
suffer  us  to  famish,  and  their  store-houses  crammed  with  grain ;  make 


-84676 


6  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

edicts  for  usury,  to  support  usurers;  repeal  daily  any  wholesome 
act  established  against  the  rich,  and  provide  more  piercing  statutes 
daily,  to  chain  up  and  restrain  the  poor.  If  the  wars  eat  us  not  up, 
they  will ;  and  there's  all  the  love  they  bear  us. 

Menenius.    Either  you  must 
Confess  yourselves  wondrous  malicious, 
Or  be  accused  of  folly.    I  shall  tell  you 
A  pretty  tale:    it  may  be  you  have  heard  it ; 
But,  since  it  serves  my  purpose,  I  will  venture 
To  stale't  a  little  more. 

There  was  a  time  when  all  the  body's  members 
Rebelled  against  the  belly,  thus  accused  it : 
That  only  like  a  gulf  it  did  remain 
I'  the  midst  of  the  body,  idle  and  unactive, 
Still  cupboarding  the  viand,  never  bearing 
Like  labor  with  the  rest,  where  the  other  instruments 
Did  see  and  hear,  devise,  instruct,  walk,  feel, 
And,  mutually  participate,  did  minister 
Unto  the  appetite  and  affection  common 
Of  the  whole  body.     The  belly  answered — 
"'True  it  is,  my  incorporate  friends,"  quoth  he, 
"That  I  receive  the  general  food  at  first, 
Which  you  do  live  upon ;    and  fit  it  is, 
Because  I  am  the  store-house  and  the  shop 
Of  the  whole  body :  but  if  you  do  remember, 
I  send  it  through  the  rivers  of  your  blood, 
Even  to  the  court,  the  heart,  the  seat  o'  the  brain ; 
And,  through  the  cranks  and  offices  of  man, 
The  strongest  nerves  and  small  inferior  veins 
From  me  receive  that  natural  competency 
Whereby  they  live :    though  all  at  once  cannot 
See  what  I  do  deliver  out  to  each, 
Yet  I  can  make  my  audit  up,  that  all 
From  me  do  back  receive  the  flour  of  all, 
And  leave  me  but  the  bran."    What  say  you  to  ' t  ? 

Citizen.    It  was  an  answer.    How  apply  you  this  ? 

Menemus.    The  senators  of  Rome  are  this  good  belly, 
And  you  tin*  unit  iuous  members;    for  examine 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 

Their  counsels  and  their  cares,  digest  things  rightly 

Touching  the  weal  o'  the  common;  you  shall  find 

No  public  benefit  which  you  receive 

But  it  proceeds  or  comes  from  them  to  you 

And  no  way  from  yourselves. 

But  make  you  ready  your  stiff  bats  and  clubs ; 

Home  and  her  rats  are  at  the  point  of  battle ; 

The  one  side  must  have  bale. 

Enter  Coriolanus. 

Coriolanus.    What's  the  matter,  you  dissent ious  rogues, 
That,  rubbing  the  poor  itch  of  your  opinion, 
Make  yourselves  scabs  ? 

Citizen.    We  have  ever  your  good  word. 

Coriolanus.    He  that  will  give  good  words  to  thee  will  flatter- 
Beneath  abhorring.    What  would  you  have,  you  curs, 
That  like  nor  peace  nor  war  ?  What's  the  matter, 

That  in  these  several  places  of  the  city 
You  cry  against  the  noble  senate,  who, 
Under  the  gods,  keep  you  in  awe,  which  else 
Would  feed  on  one  another  ?    What's  their  seeking ? 

Menenius.    For  corn  at  their  own  rates ;    whereof,  they  say, 
The  city  is  well  stored. 

Coriolanus.  Hang  'em !    They  say ! 

They'll  sit  by  the  fire,  and  presume  to  know 
What's  done  i'  the  Capitol :    who's  like  to  rise, 
Who  thrives  and  who  declines ;    side  factions  and  give  out 
Conjectural  marriages ;  making  parties  strong 
And  feebling  such  as  stand  not  in  their  liking 
Beneath  their  cobbled  shoes.    They  say  there's  grain  enough ! 
Would  the  nobility  lay  aside  their  ruth, 
And  let  me  use  my  sword,  I  'Id  make  a  quarry 
With  thousands  of  these  quarter'd  slaves,  as  high 
As  I  could  pick  my  lance. 


Nearly    2400    years  have  passed.    But  Coriolanus, 
Menenius  and  the  citizens  clamoring  for  food  still  live. 


THE  HARVEST  OF  SECTIONS, 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE    CONCENTRATION    OF    WEALTH,    CONSIDERED  WITH 
REFERENCE  TO  LOCALITY. 


In  the  spring  of  1892  the  writer  hereof  published  a 
little  pamphlet  entitled  "Bondholders  and  Breadwin- 
ners. "  The  author  thereof  was  very  careful  that  every 
fact  stated  and  figure  given  should  be  absolutely  and 
incontrovertibly  correct.  Dealing  with  United  States 
statistics  of  wealth,  the  Government  Census  of  1890 
was  taken  as  the  authority  for  all  the  figures  given. 
The  entire  success  of  that  undertaking  has  abundantly 
rewarded  the  effort  made  to  be  fair,  candid  and  truth- 
ful. Indeed,  the  author  believes  it  pays  to  be  as  fair, 
candid  and  truthful  in  the  discussion  of  politics  as  in 
the  discussion  of  any  other  matter.  Not  a  figure  there- 
in given  has  been  challenged,  and  no  statement  of  fact 
has  been  shaken.  The  most  that  any  enemy  of  that 
work  has  succeeded  in  doing  is  to  dispute  the  correct- 
ness of  some  of  the  author's  conclusions  based  on  the 
facts  and  figures  therein. 

The  wonderful  success  of  the  publication  referred  to 
has  been  sufficient  to  warrant  this  undertaking.  The 
large  sales  reached,  the  high  commendations  received 


10  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

and  the  consciousness  of  great  good  accomplished  all 
combine  to  justify  the  author  in  the  belief  that  he  had 
then  discovered  matters  of  sufficient  moment  to  inter- 
est the  people,  and  to  be  worth  the  telling.  So  he 
thinks  of  the  present  matter  in  hand.  As  that  was 
candid  and  truthful,  so  shall  this  be.  As  that  has  stood 
as  a  strong  plea  for  the  people,  and  stood  unshaken, 
so  shall  this. 

In  order  that  my  readers  may  the  better  under- 
stand this  work,  I  desire  that  they  should  know  some- 
thing of  that.  It  was  a  startling  story.  As  our  friend 
Menenius  said, 

It  may  oe  you  have  heard  it; 
But  since  it  serves  my  purpose,  I  will  venture 
To  stale't  a  little  more. 

The  purpose  of  bondholders  and  Breadwinners" 
was  to  show  the  concentration  of  wealth — not  in  the 
hands  of  individuals  and  corporations  so  much  as  in 
the  favored  sections  of  the  country.  I  there  sought  to 
show  and  did  show  that  through  the  unjust  operations 
of  unholy  laws  certain  portions  of  the  Nation,  unduly 
favored  by  wicked  legislation,  accumulated  vast  wealth 
during  the  decade  from  1880  to  1890,  while  other  sec- 
tions less  favored  by  legislation,  but  which  in  factpro- 
duced  the  greater  wealth,  were  deprived  of  their  fair 
proportion  of  wealth-gain.  For  example  it  was  shown 
that: 

INDIANA,    ILLINOIS,    IOWA,     NEBRASKA,     LOUISIANA, 


THE  HARVEST  OF  SECTIONS.  12 

MISSISSIPPI,  ALABAMA,  GEORGIA  and  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
nine  great  producing  states,  having  58  times  as  much 
land  and  7  times  as  many  people  to  cultivate  it,  gained 
less  wealth  in  the  decade  from  1880  to  1890  than  the 
one   little  railroad-owning  state  of  MASSACHUSETTS. 
This  proportion  of  people   I    and  land   •    in  the  East 
was  enabled  to  accumulate  more  wealth  than  this  pro- 
portion of  people    ••••     and     land    ••••••••• 

HHBHHHBBBHBBHBUBHHBBHBH     in     the     West    and 
South. 

INDIANA,  ILLINOIS,  IOWA,  NEBRASKA,  LOUISIANA, 
MISSISSIPPI,  ALABAMA,  GEORGIA,  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
KANSAS,  KENTUCKY  and  FLORIDA,  twelve  great  produc- 
ing states,  with  14  times  as  much  land  and  4  times  as 
many  people  to  cultivate  it,  gained  less  wealth  in  the 
period  named  than  the  one  manufacturing  state  of 
PENNSYLVANIA.  This  proportion  of  people  •  and 
land  BHi  in  the  East  was  able  to  accumulate  more 
wealth  than  this  proportion  of  people  HMBB  and  land 


in  the  West  and  South. 


INDIANA,  ILLINOIS,  IOWA,  NEBRASKA,  LOUISIANA, 
MISSISSIPPI,  ALABAMA,  GEORGIA,  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
KANSAS,  KENTUCKY,  FLORIDA,  TENNESSEE,  VIRGINIA 
and  WEST  VIRGINIA,  fifteen  great  producing  states, 
with  16  times  as  much  land  and  4  times  as  many  people 
to  cultivate  it,  gained  less  wealth  in  the  period  named 
than  the  Banking  and  Bondholding  state  of  NEW  YORK. 


12  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

This  proportion  of  people  m  and  land  •••  in  the 
East  was  able  to  accumulate  more  wealth  than  this 
proportion  of  people  ••^•••i  and  land 


in  the  West  and  South. 


INDIANA,  ILLINOIS,  IOWA,  NEBRASKA,  LOUISIANA, 
MISSISSIPPI,  ALABAMA,  GEORGIA,  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
KANSAS,  KENTUCKY,  FLORIDA,  TENNESSEE,  VIRGINIA, 
WEST  VIRGINIA,  MISSOURI,  ARKANSAS,  SOUTH  CAROLINA, 
DELAWARE,  MARYLAND  and  OHIO,  twenty-one  produc- 
ing states  forming  the  great  body  of  the  Union,  a 
wonderland  of  diversified  resources,  with  6  times  as 
much  land  and  twice  as  many  people  to  cultivate  it, 
were  able  to  accumulate  one-half  as  much  wealth  in  the 
period  named  as  the  nine  North  Atlantic  states  of 
MAINE,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  VERMONT,  MASSACHUSETTS, 
CONNECTICUT,  RHODE  ISLAND,  NEW  YORK,  PENNSYL- 
VANIA and  NEW  JERSEY.  This  proportion  of  people 
••••  and  land  ••••^MIH^  in  the  Bast,  ac- 
cumulated twice  as  much  wealth  in  the  period  named 
as  this  proportion  of  people  ••••••••  and  land 


in  the  great  producing  section  of  the  country. 

The  great  producing  body  of  the  Union  is  comprised 
in  these  21  states.  Texas  was  not  included  because  its 
wealth-gain  was  derived  from  ranch  stock  rather  than 


TIIK  HARVEST  OF  SECTIONS.  13 

agriculture.  This  is  not  saying  that  Texas  is  not  a 
great  agricultural  state.  But  in  addition  to  its  agri- 
culture it  has  had  the  other  great  industry  of  stock 
raising  on  wild  lands.  Vast  fortunes  have  been  made 
from  that  industry,  and  these  \ast  fortunes  give  Texas 
a  great  wealth-gain.  The  ggin  is  not  from  agriculture, 
as  Texas  people  will  freely  admit.  The  three  Northern 
pine-tree  states  of  Minnesota,  Wisconsin  and  Michigan 
were  not  included  in  these  comparisons,  because  their 
large  wealth-gains  were  derived  from  protected  lumber 
monopolies  rather  than  agriculture,  as  the  farmers  of 
those  states  well  know.  The  new  states  and  territo- 
ries to  the  westward  were  not  considered,  because  too 
young  to  furnish  valuable  lessons.  The  purpose  was  to 
contrast  those  states  engaged  in  Agriculture  with  those 
engaged  in  Manufactures,  Transportation  and  Bank- 
ing. 

It  was  largely  of  the  same  states  of  which  I  wrote, 
that  Senator  Ingalls  wrote  a  few  months  later.  I  quote 
from  his  splendid  article  in  Lippincott's  Magazine, 
June,  1892:  u  Sparsely  inhabited,  with  rude  and  un- 
scientific methods,  its  resources  hardly  touched,  the 
states  of  the  Mississippi  valley  last  year  produced  more 
than  three-quarters  of  the  sugar,  coal,  corn,  iron,  oats, 
wheat,  cotton,  tobacco,  lead,  hay,  lumber,  \vool,  pork, 
beef,  horses  and  mules  of  the  entire  country,  together 
with  a  large  fraction  of  its  gold  and  silver.  Their  in- 
ternal commerce  is  already  greater  than  all  the  foreign 
commerce  of  the  combined  nations  of  the  earth. "  This 


14  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

being  true,  and  it  is  true,  one  would  naturally  conclude 
that  a  portion  of  the  world  so  fertile  as  this,  a  portion 
that  can  feed,  warm  and  clothe  the  world,  should  re- 
ceive at  least  its  fair  proportion  of  the  world's  accumu- 
lation of  \vealth. 

But  that  it  does  not  is  .shown  by  the  facts  stated 
above  and  by  others  which  follow.  The  wealth  pro- 
duced by  the  diversified  industry  of  these  21  states  re- 
mains not  with  the  producers,  but  is  drawn  away  to 
the  North  Atlantic  states  by  reason  of  their  Manufact- 
uring, Railroading  and  Banking  interests,  through  the 
operation  of  unjust  legislation  that  favors  those  inter- 
ests. In  addition  to  this  drain  to  the  East,  the  wealth 
produced  in  this  great  producing  district  has  been 
drawn  also  to  the  North.  The  protected  pine  lumber 
monopolies  have  levied  a  tribute  as  onerous  as  that 
paid  to  the  East.  Millionaire  fortunes  have  been  accu- 
mulated to  the  northward  as  well  as  to  the  eastward, 
not  worked  from  the  soil,  but  worked  from  the  work- 
ers of  the  soil. 

These  constant  drains  of  wealth  from  the  Produce  Dis- 
trict (the  21  states)  into  the  Wealth  District  (the  9 
states )  and  into  the  Lumber  District  ( the  3  states ) 
were  illustrated  by  a  cut  which  I  am  constrained  to  re- 
produce here,  even  at  the  risk  of  being  wearisome. 
These  great  wrongs  on  the  people  connot  be  too  fre- 
quently impressed  upon  their  attention. 


THE  HARVEST  OF  SECTIONS. 


15 


Texas  and  the  states  and  territories  to  the  westward 
of  Minnesota,  Nebraska  and  Kansas  are  not  shown  in 
this  illustration.  Some  are  too  young  to  be  of  any 
service  in  these  comparisons ;  the  population  of  others 
has  increased  so  largely ;  so  much  land  has  changed 
from  government  to  individual  ownership ;  some  are  so 
remote  from  the  body  of  the  nation,  and  in  others  the 
causes  operating  are  so  different  from  the  causes  operat- 
ing in  the  Mississippi  valley  that  to  include  them  in 
this  illustration  or  discussion  would  be  manifestly  un- 
fair and  tend  to  obscure  rather  than  enlighten. 

But  of  those  portions  of  the  country  shown  in  the 
foregoing  chart : 


16  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

The  Lumber  District  (the  three  pine-tree  states  of 
Minnesota,  Wisconsin  and  Michigan)  with  7 per  cent  of 
the  entire  population  of  the  nation  held  12  per  cent  of 
the  wealth-gain  of  the  nation  from  1880  to  1890, 
represented  thus : 

Population 

Wealth-gain 

The  Wealth  District  ( the  nine  North  Atlantic  states 
named )  with  29  per  cent  of  the  entire  population  of  the 
nation  held  41  per  cent  of  the  total  wealth-gain,  rep- 
resented thus : 

Population ••BBHBBHBBHMNBBHH 

Wealth-gain ••••••naaHHBBaHBBBBHBBi 

The  Produce  District  ( the  21  states  mentioned  form- 
ing the  body  of  the  nation )  with  56  per  cent  of  the  en- 
tire population  kept  only  23  per  cent  of  the  total 
wealth-gain,  represented  thus  : 


Pop....! 


Wealth-gain , •^••••••^•i 

Thus  is  seen  the  exceedingly  unequal  distribution  of 

the  wealth-gain  considered  with  reference  to  the  geo- 
graphical divisions  indicated.  This. Produce  District, 
the  21  states,  can  feed  and  clothe  the  world.  Its  56  per 
cent  of  the  entire  population  of  the  nation,  living  on 
fruitful  soil,  should  accumulate  at  least  its  proportion- 
ate percentage  of  the  wealth-gain,  instead  of  only  23 
per  cent.  The  29  per  cent  of  the  entire  population,  liv- 


THE  HARVEST  OF  SECTIONS.  17 

ing  among  the  worn-out  hills  of  new  England,  should 
not  accumulate  more  than  their  proportionate  percent- 
age of  wealth,  and  when  that  percentage  goes  up  to  41, 
something  is  wrong  somewhere.  It  behooves  the 
patriot  to  seek  to  discover  where  the  wrong  is.  It  is 
not  in  these  figures.  They  are  official.  Those  relating 
to  population  are  from  Official  Census  Bulletin  No.  16, 
and  those  relating  to  wealth  from  No.  104. 

Since  "  Bondholders  and  Breadwinners  "  was  written 
Mr.  Superintendent  Porter  of  the  Census  Bureau  has 
issued  a  further  bulletin  pertaining  to  the  wealth  of  the 
nation.  Its  purpose  is  to  correct  certain  supposed 
errors  in  No.  104.  The  changes  however  are  not  im- 
portant, and  would  not  materially  alter  the  results  I 
have  given.  As  my  former  work  is  still  being  published 
from  the  plates  prepared  on  the  basis  of  the  figures 
given  in  bulletin  No.  104,  I  refer  to  the  same  figures 
now,  rather  than  to  the  slightly  altered  ones. 

Mr.  Superintendent  Porter  has  added  to  the  wealth 
of  some  of  the  western  states,  in  this  corrected  bulletin, 
for  the  reason  which  I  quote  from  him  as  follows :  "The 
figures  of  1880  are  taken  from  the  report  of  the  Tenth 
Census,  and  in  the  states  where  values  of  railroads  are 
known  to  be  included  therein  for  that  year,  viz.,  Cali- 
fornia, Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas  and  South  Carolina, 
like  figures  have  been  included  in  the  figures  of  1890  so 
as  to  secure  proper  comparison  between  the  two  pe- 
riods. "  We  know  that  the  railroads  of  the  Mississippi 


18  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

valley  are  owned  in  the  East.  The  increase,  therefore 
during  the  decade,  increases  the  wealth-gain  of  the  East 
rather  than  of  the  West,  and  it  is  believed  that  were 
this  additional  wealth,  added  to  the  wealth  of  the 
states  that  really  own  it,  the  showing  would  be  still 
more  favorable  to  eastern  concentration  than  indicated 
in  the  figures  taken  from  bulletin  No.  104. 

I  have  been  thus  particular  in  epitomizing  a  portion 
of  my  former  publication  in  order  that  the  reader  may 
the  better  understand  the  exposition  which  follows. 
We  have  seen  the  unequal  flow  of  wealth  to  certain 
states.  It  goes  to  the  favored  classes  who  happen  to 
live  there.  The  purpose  of  the  following  pages  will  be 
to  show  who  those  favored  classes  are,  and  the  manner 
in  which  their  great  wealth  is  accumulated  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  producers. 


THE  HARVEST  OF  CLASSES.  W 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE     CONCENTRATION    OF    WEALTH,     CONSIDERED    WITH 
REFERENCE  TO   CLASSES. 


Much  has  been  said  and  written  on  this  subject  of 
concentration  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few  people, 
and  for  years  we  have  heard  and  read  of  "The  rich 
growing  richer  and  the  poor  growing  poorer.'7  The 
statement  can  also  be  made  and  fully  sustained  that  the 
number  of  very  rich  is  yearly  growing  larger,  and  the 
lumber  of  very  poor  is  increasing  with  like  rapidity. 

The  highest  and  best  official  authority  is  sought  in 
giving  all  the  figures  herein.  Mr.  Geo.  K.  Holmes,  of 
the  Census  Bureau,  has  recently  greatly  assisted  these 
researches  by  a  splendid  article  published  in  the  Politi- 
cal Science  Quarterly  for  December.  His  figures  are  of 
course  authoritative  and  authentic,  and  as  near  official 
concerning  the  matters  of  which  he  treats  as  we  may 
hope  to  get.  The  writer  hereof  acknowledges  his  in- 
debtedness to  Mr.  Holmes  for  much  useful  information. 
From  that  valuable  article  we  learn  the  folio  wing  facts: 


20  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

Total  families  in  United  States 12,690,152 

Number  of  families  living  on  farms 4,500,000 

Number  of  families  living  in  homes  other  than  farms 8,190,152 

Of  the  families  on  farms,  32  p?r  cent  are  tenants. 

Of  the  families  living  in  other  homes,  63  per  cent  are  tenants. 

Of  the  farm-owning  families,  30  per  cent  have  their  farms  mortgaged. 

Of  the  home-ownfng  families,  29  per  cent  have  their  homes  mortgaged. 

Average  amount  of  farm  mortgages,  $1130. 

Average  amount  of  home  mortgages,  $1139. 

Let  us  look  at  this  statement  in  all  its  startling  im- 
port. This  is  the  land  of  freedom !  The  land  of  homes ! 
And  yet,  the  land  of  the  homeless !  If  the  reader  will 
figure  on  the  percentages  given  by  Mr.  Holmes  as  I  have 
quoted  them,  he  will  be  rewarded  for  his  pains  and 
startled  with  this  result: 

Farm  families  who  own  no  homes 1,440,000 

Other  families  who  own  no  homes.. 5,159,796 

Total  families  who  own  no  homes 6,599,796 

Farm  families  who  own  mortgaged  farms  * 752,760 

Other  families  who  own  mortgaged  homes  * 720,618 

Total  homeless  and  mortgaged  families., 8,073,174 


*The  reader  will  £ nd  some  difficulty  in  figuring  these  percentages, 
both  here  and  in  Mr.  Holmes'  article,  to  produce  the  results  given 
above.  If  he  deduct  32  per  cent  from  4,500,000,  and  then  take  30 
per  cent  of  the  remainder,  he  will  have  considerably  more  thnn  752,- 
760  farm  families  owning  mortgaged  farms.  And  if  he  deduct  63 
per  cent  from  8,190,152,  and  then  take  29  pfcr  cent  of  the  remainder, 
he  will  have  more  than  720,618  families  owning  mortgaged  homes 
other  than  farms.  Mr.  Holmes,  in  dealing  with  mortgaged  farms 
and  other  homes,  owned  by  the  occupants,  deals  only  \vitli  those 
worth  less  than  $5,000.  Of  these  farms  and  honn's  lx>  finds  82  per 


THE  HARVEST  OF  CLASSES.  21 

Here  we  find  a  clear  majority  of  all  the  families  of  the 
United  States  without  homes,  and  nearly  two-thirds 
without  clear  homes !  The  inspiration  to  patriotism  is 
love  of  home.  The  love  of  country  is  a  blighted  and 
blasted  affection  unless  it  first  buds  and  blossoms  about 
the  home.  A  homely  yet  forcible  assurance  has  been 
given  us  by  some  one  to  the  effect  that  men  are  not  dis- 
posed to  battle  very  much  in  defense  of  the  boarding 
house.  Neither  will  they  fight  very  valiantly  for  the 
home  of  some  one  else.  The  home,  not  the  house, 
must  develope  the  patriotic  spirit.  If  the  rich  shall  fear 
the  growth  of  anarchy  in  the  Republic,  let  them  by 
'wholesome  legislation,  put  into  the  hands  of  the  poor 
the  fair  and  reasonable  possibility  of  acquiring  and 
owning  the  home  that  shall  be  their  little  world.  Lov- 
ing that  little  home  and  through  it  the  Nation,  the  pro- 
tection and  defense  of  both  shall  be  their  highest  glory. 

Mr.  Holmes,  in  this  connection,  shows  that  6,599,- 
796  families  of  the  United  States,  being  52  per  cent  of 
the  total  families,  own  less  than  one-twentieth  of  the 
total  wealth.  Is  not  this  most  startling?  Look  at  it! 
Consider  it  in  all  its  hideousness !  More  than  one-half 
of  the  people  own  only  5  t)er  cent  of  the  wealth! 


cent  of  eacn  worth  less  than  $5,000.  Hence  the  reader  must  take  30 
per  cent  of  82  per  cent  of  the  remainder  in  one  case,  and  29  per  cent 
of  82  per  cent  of  the  remainder  in  the  other,  hi  order  to  get  the  cor- 
rect number  of  mortgaged  farm  and  home  families.  If  the  reader 
shall  -think  this  is  not  very  clear  he  is  referred  to  Mr.  Holmes'  article 
where,  it  is  feared,  he  will  not  find  it  much  clearer. 


22  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

The  other  half,  less  than  half,  own  95  per  cent  of  the 
wealth !  If  we  state  this  surprising  truth  in  the  shape 
of  an  illustration,  it  will  furnish  a  valuable  object  les- 
son, thus : 

HBHHBBHBHBHHMBHMBHBBHnHBHHHHi    this  part 
of  the  families  owns  this  part  of  the  wealth    warn 

•BHnHBHHHBHSHBRHHHttHHHHii^H     this  part  of 
the  families  own  this  part  of  the  wealth 


Thus  we  see  how  small  a  portion  of  the  wealth  is 
owned  by  half  the  families — little  more  than  half.  We 
will  now  increase  the  percentage  of  families,  and  see  how 
small  a  part  of  the  wealth  is  owned  by  nearly  all  the 
people.  Mr.  Holmes  says,  "91  per  cent  of  the  12,690,- 
152  families  own  no  more  than  29  per  cent  of  the 
wealth,  and  9  per  cent  of  the  families  own  about  71  per 
cent."  Another  object  lesson,  thus : 


•&BB6HBBOHHHH     this  part  of  the  families  owns 
this  part  of  the  wealth    ••••••••••••H 

••••  this  part  of  the  families  owns  this  part  of  the 
Wealth    ••^••••nHHBHHHMHBBNKHBflnHHHBHi 


Thus  we  have  the  families  of  the  Nation  divided  into 
two  classes,  designated  as  the  rich  and  the  poor.  But 
Mr.  Holmes  proceeds  further,  and  from  among  the  rich 
evolves  another  class,  viz.,  millionaires.  Of  these  he 


THE  HARVEST  OF  CLASSES.  23 

finds  4,047  families  whose  average  wealth  is  $3,000,- 
000,  making  a  total  of  $12,000,000,000,  or  one^fifth  of 
the  entire  wealth  of  the  country.  Think  of  this !  4,047 
families  own  12  billion  dollars'  worth  of  property,  while 
6,599,796  families  own  less  than  3  billion  dollars' 
worth. 

But  to  quote  from  Mr.  Holmes  again :  "  We  are  now 
prepared  to  characterize  the  concentrated  wealth  of  the 
United  States  by  stating  that  20  per  cent  of  it  is  own- 
ed by  three-hundredths  of  one  per  cent  of  the  families ; 
51  per  cent  by  9  per  cent  of  the  families  ( not  including 
the  millionaires );  71  per  cent  by  9  per  cent  of  the  fami- 
lies ( including  the  millionaires );  and  29  per  cent  by  91 
per  cent  of  the  families. " 

The  three-hundredths  of  one  per  cent  mentioned  above 
is  the  4,047  millionaire  families.  That  part  of  the  en- 
tire number  of  families  is  so  small  as  to  destroy  the  use- 
fulness of  diagrams.  Three-hundredths  of  one  per  cent ! 
One  thirty-third  of  one  per  cent !  Or,  one  in  3300 !  It 
is  so  small  as  to  be  scarcely  discernible. 

We  have  now  developed  four  classes  from  the  article 
quoted;  the  very  rich,  4,047  millionaire  families  consti- 
tuting one  thirty-third  part  of  one  per  cent  of  the  fami- 
lies and  possessing  20  per  cent  of  the  wealth ;  the  rich, 
1,092,218  families,  being  about  9  per  cent  of  the  total 
and  possessing  51  per  cent  of  the  wealth ;  the  home- 
owners of  moderate  means,  4,994,091  families,  being 
39  per  cent  of  the  total  and  possessing  24  per  cent  of 
the  wealth ;  the  homeless,  6,599,796  families,  being  52 


24  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

percent  of  the  total  and  possessing  5  per  cent  of  the 
wealth.  Our  diagrams  representing  this  classification 
( combining  the  first  two  classes  into  one,  because  the 
millionaire  class  is  too  small  a  percentage  to  be  repre- 
sented in  a  diagram )  will  appear  thus : 
^••H  this  part  of  the  families,  9  per  cent  ( the  rich 
and  very  rich )  owns  this  part  of  the  wealth,  71  per  cent 


BBanMHBaHBBHBBIIII^HBHH  this  part  of  the  fami- 
lies, 39  per  cent  (home  owners)  owns  this  part  of  the 
wealth,  24  per  cent  BHHaBBflOBBQ 

BHHBBHn^BaKSHKgffiHflHaHaDlBHHn  this  part 
of  the  families,  52  per  cent  (homeless)  owns  this  part 
of  the  wealth,  5  per  cent  HEB 

Let  this  be  stated  still  another  way  so  as  to  impress 
the  frightful  picture  of  these  great  inequalities  of  wealth 
distribution  as  strongly  as  possible  on  the  reader's 
mind,  if  the  foregoing  illustrations  have  in  any  manner 
failed : 

No.  Families.         Class.         Average  per  Family.  Total  for  class. 

4,047  Millionaire            $3,000,000  $12,000,000,000 

1,092,218  Rich                              28,735  30,500,000,000 

4,994,091  Home-owners                2,915  14,560,939,343 

6,599,796  Homeless                           418  2,795,898,000 

Is  there  not  food  for  the  thoughtful  mind  in  these  fig- 
ures ?  Think  of  it !  The  average  wealth  of  all  the  fami- 


THE  HARVEST  OF  CLASSES.  25 

lies  in  the  United  States  ( about  five  persons  to  the  fami- 
ly), according  to  .Mr.  Holmes,  and  according  to  all 
Census  figures,  is  about  $4,728.  Thus,  then,  the  4,047 
millionaire  families  own  the  shares  of  2,538,071  fami- 
lies. But,  again,  it  is  the  millionaire  himself,  not  the 
family,  who  owns  and  controls  the  vast  wealth.  Of 
the  4,047  families  there  are  4,047  persons  who  own  as 
much  wealth  as  all  the  people  in  2,538,071  families  or 
12,690,355  people.  That  is  to  say,  of  this  millionaire 
class,  each  average  millionaire  possesses  as  much  wealth 
as  the  average  3,135  people  in  the  other  class!  And 
here  my  diagrams  must  fail  again.  I  cannot  contrast 
1  with  3,135  very  well.  If  I  made  one  side  of  the  con- 
trast large  enough  to  be  seen,  the  other  would  be  too 
large  for  this  work.  So  I  will  have  to  let  the  reader 
make  his  own  comparison. 

If,  then,  the  financial  legislation  of  the  past  30  years 
has  been  such  that  in  the  wealth  distribution  of  this  Re- 
public, one  person  has  been  enabled  to  accumulate  as 
much  wealth  as  3,135  persons,  and  to  extend  the  opera- 
tion of  these  conditions  to  4,047  cases,  does  the  reader 
fear  a  change  in  legislation  ?  Can  the  economic  condi- 
tions be  made  worse  than  they  are  ?  How  ? 

Another  interesting  question  in  this  connection  is  as 
to  the  sources  from  which  these  vast  fortunes  were  de- 
rived. Census  reports,  perhaps,  cannot  show  this. 
But  Mr.  Holmes  quotes  the  New  York  Tribune's  state- 
ment, with  apparent  approval,  showing  the  particular 
channels  through  which  the  great  wealth  flowed  to 


26  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

these  4,047  peculiarly  favored  families.    The  following 
table  is  reproduced  from  that  article : 

Land  and  its  exploitation 825 

Natural  and  artificial  monopolies 410 

Agriculture,  ranch  stock,  sugar,  etc.,  often  with  land 86 

Trade  and  manufactures,  often  with  land  and  securities 2,065 

Interest,  profit  and  speculation  not  otherwise  mentioned,  often 

with  land 536 

Inheritances,  otherwise  unexplained 34 

Miscellaneous,  often  with  land 70 

Unknown 21 

Total , 4,047 

While  this  table  is  useful  in  showing  the  fountains 
from  which  the  vast  fortunes  have  flowed,  or,  rather, 
the  channels  through  which  they  have  flowed,  it  would 
be  still  more  valuable  had  it  gone  further  into  details,  if 
such  were  possible. 

LAND  AND  ITS  EXPLOITATION,  825 !  It  is  difficult  to 
understand  just  what  the  compiler  meant  by  the  word 
"  exploitation. "  It  is  believed  to  be  used  in  the  sense  of 
acquiring  land  and  then  deriving  the  largest  financial 
benefit  from  it  by  such  work  as  developing  mines,  felling 
forests,  etc.  The  gentlemen  who  "  exploited "  lands, 
and  accumulated  vast  fortunes  from  their  operation, 
generally  obtained  them  at  merely  nominal  prices. 
While  millions  are  landless,  houseless  and  fireless  the 
"  exploiters  "  are  permitted  to  form  monopolies  in  land, 
lumber  and  fuel,  building  the  princely  fortunes  of  the 
favored  classes  while  the  hollow  eye  and  bloodless  hand 
of  w ant  are  seen  at  every  turn. 


THE  HARVEST  OF  CLASSES.  21 

NATURAL  AND  ARTIFICIAL  MONOPOLIES,  410!  These 
natural  and  artificial  monopolies  may  be  designated  as : 
railways,  canals,  ferries,  telegraphs,  telephones,  electric- 
lights,  gas-works,  water-works,  patents,  copyrights, 
etc.  There  are,  perhaps,  others  that  do  not  occur  to 
the  writer  at  this  time,  but  not  of  great  importance  or 
general  use.  The  one  great  monopoly  that  stands  out 
pre-eminently  is  that  of  the  railways.  Nearly  all  of 
these  410  great  fortunes  were  made  through  this  one  of 
the  monopolies. 

AGRICULTURE,  RANCH  STOCK,  SUGAR,  ETC.,  OFTEN  WITH 
LAND,  86 !  It  was  a  happy  thought  of  the  compiler, 
after  starting  this  class  with  Agriculture,  to  put  in  some 
ETCETERA.  And  it  was  a  happy  use  of  language  that 
selected  the  word  Agriculture  rather  than  Farming.  In 
more  recent  nomenclature  I  believe  it  is  proper  to  speak 
of  the  farmer  as  one  who  farms  the  land,  while  an  agri- 
culturist is  one  who  farms  the  farmer.  But  as  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  to  imagine  a  case  where  a  farmer  has 
become  a  millionaire  through  the  regular  channels  of 
cultivating  the  land  to  grain,  cotton,  tobacco,  fruit, 
garden  truck,  or  any  other  farm  product ;  or,  in  devot- 
ing the  farm  to  live  stock  or  dairy  products,  it  is  easy 
to  understand  that  the  agriculture  meant  is  of  the 
ranch-stock-sugar-etcetera  variety. 

TRADE  AND  MANUFACTURES,  OFTEN  WITH  LAND  AND 
SECURITIES,  2,065 !  By  far  the  largest  class  of  all.  And 
these  millionaire  fortunes  have  all  been  accumulated 
during  the  latter  third  of  the  Republic's  life.  It  may  be 


28  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

doubted  whether  a  single  one  in  this  class  was  produced 
during  the  first  two-thirds.  And  why  not  then  as  well 
as  now?  I  quote  again  from  Mr.  Holmes:  "A  new 
country,  like  the  United  States,  in  its  past  decades,  af- 
fords many  opportunities  for  making  fortunes  that  are 
rarely  or  never  found  in  the  older  countries.  The  open- 
ing of  mines,  the  cutting  of  forests,  the  building  and 
consolidating  of  railways,  the  rise  in  land  values  in 
growing  cities,  the  expansion  of  manufacturing  and 
trading  demands  in  a  rapidly-increasing  population, 
all  these  stimulate  the  initiator  to  play  for  great  stakes. 
But  the  period  of  such  chances  and  opportunities  is 
transitory;  pioneers  cannot  be  followed  by  pioneers. 
As  time  passes  fortune-building  on  the  whole  settles 
down  to  an  investment  of  the  saving  of  a  moderate  rate 
of  interest/' 

This  being  true,  then  the  first  two-thirds  of  our  Na- 
tional life  should  naturally  have  been  more  condusive 
to  fortune-building  than  the  latter  third,  unless  the  lat- 
ter period  has  been  improved  for  this  purpose  by  artifi- 
cial means.  I  suspect  the  application  of  such  artifices 
in  these  later  years.  In  the  former  years  natural  laws 
favorable  to  fortune-building  failed  to  make  millionaires 
Now,  in  spite  of  less  favorable  natural  conditions,  they 
come  trooping  by  thousands.  If  the  production  of  mil- 
lionaires and  paupers  be  a  misfortune  there  must  be 
error  somewhere  in  the  political  economy  we  have 
practiced. 

INTEREST,  PROFIT  AND  SPECULATION  NOT  OTHERWISE 


THE  HARVEST  OF  CLASSES.  29 

MENTIONED,  OFTEN  WITH  LAND,  536 !  This  is  the  bank- 
ing and  bondholding  business  of  the  country.  "The 
best  banking  system  on  earth, "  shout  the  alleged  pat- 
riots of  all  parties,  and  the  writer  has  heard  this  so 
often  that  he  is  inclined  to  believe  it  is  the  best — for  the 
banker.  A  banking  system  that  makes  millionaires  at 
this  rate  should  strongly  commend  itself  to  the  kind 
and  enthusiastic  approval  of— usurers.  Not  to  borrow- 
ers. 

But  enough  now  of  Mr.  Holmes  and  his  excellent  ex- 
position of  certain  forcible  and  fruitful  truths.  These 
copious  extracts  have  been  made  and  commented  en  in 
order  to  set  before  the  reader  in  the  strongest  possible 
light  certain  existing  conditions — to  show  the  deep  and 
still  deepening  gulf  between  Lazarus  and  Dives,  and  to 
ask :  Shall  we  plunge  blindly  in  like  the  ill-fated  cuiras- 
siers into  the  sunken  roadway  of  Ohain,  or  shall  we 
bridge  it  ?  Shall  another  Menenius  again  declare  that 
"Rome  and  her  rats  are  at  the  point  of  battle  ?  " 


30  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 


CHAPTER  III. 


TITO     CONCENTRATION     OF    WEALTH  THROUGH  RAILROAD 

TRAFFIC. 


Railway  Statistics  form  a  very  interesting  feature  of 
the  Eleventh  Census.  The  Bureau  has  published  ten 
bulletins  in  relation  thereto,  prepared  by  Henry  C. 
Adams,  special  agent  in  charge  of  the  Division  of  Trans- 
portation. 

Mr.  Adams  believes  that  the  conditions  in  this  coun- 
try are  so  incongruous  that  the  railroad  business  of  the 
entire  Nation,  considered  as  an  entirety,  "would  be  use- 
less, and  so  proceeds  to  classify  the  roads  by  groups. 
Ten  of  these  groups  are  thus  classified  in  the  ten  bulle- 
tins, and  are  arranged  as  follows : 

Group  I.    The  New  England  States. 

Group  II.  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Delaware,  Maryland  and  part  of  West  Virginia. 

Group  III.  Ohio,  Indiana,  Southern  Peninsula  of 
Michigan,  and  parts  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York. 

Group  IV.  Virginia,  West  Virginia,  North  Carolina 
and  South  Carolina. 


HARVEST  OF  THE  RAILROADS.  31 

Group  V.  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Ala- 
bama, Georgia  and  Florida. 

Group  VI.  Illinois,  Northern  Peninsula  of  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  North  Dakota,  South  Da- 
kota and  Missouri. 

Group  VII.  Nebraska,  Montana,  Wyoming  and  parts 
of  North  Dakota,  South  Dakota  and  Colorado. 

Group  YIII.  Missouri  (South  of  Missouri  River), 
Arkansas,  Kansas,  Indian  Territory,  Colarado  South 
of  Denver  and  New  Mexico  North  of  Santa  Fe. 

Group  IX.  Louisiana,  Texas  and  part  of  New  Mexi- 
co. 

Group  X.  California,  Oregon,  WasMnsrton,  Idaho, 
Nevada,  Arizona,  Utah  and  part  of  New  Mexico. 

These  statistics  furnish  much  useful  Information,  and 
form  a  valuable  addition  to  the  railroad  literature  of 
the  country.  The  several  matters  treated  are  official 
and  as  nearly  correct  as  we  can  hope  ever  to  obtain. 

The  Economy  of  Labor  forms  one  important  feature 
in  these  bulletins ;  and  though  the  reference  I  am  about 
to  make  to  that  feature  may  be  a  digression  from  the 
purpose  of  this  work,  yet  I  am  impelled  to  make  it  in 
the  interest  of  Labor.  Generally,  I  believe,  Census  fig- 
ures show  an  increase  of  wages  in  1890  over  1880. 
And  for  this  the  various  Labor  Organizations  of  the 
country  deserve  congratulation.  I  am  not  writing  of 
economic  conditions  since  1890,  but  during,  the  last 
census  decade.  But  any  advance  of  wages  from  1880 
to  1890  was  not  made  by  the  voluntary  action  of  Cap- 


32  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

ital ;  nor  by  reason  of  an  increasing  demand  for  Labor ; 
nor  by  reason  of  a  decrease  in  the  supply  of  Labor.  If 
the  conditions  of  Labor  were  improved  it  was  all  due 
to  its  efforts  in  making  its  just  demands  on  Capital  and 
Legislation. 

But  while  wages  increased,  the  relative  opportunity 
of  earning  wages  decreased.  While  the  worker  was  en- 
abled to  earn  more,  the  army  of  unemployed  was  aug- 
mented by  great  accessions  of  new  recruits.  So  much 
more  labor  accomplished  by  one  man,  and  so  much 
greater  proportion  of  laborers  unable  to  find  employ- 
ment, are  the  results  of  more  approved  methods  and 
more  improved  machinery.  This  cause  and  this  effect 
are  written  on  every  page  of  our  National  history.  If 
the  earning  capacity  of  the  man  has  increased,  it  were 
a  gross  injustice  if  his  wages  should  not  also  increase. 

The  earning  capacity  of  employees  of  railroads  in 
1880  and  1890  is  shown  in  the  bulletins  by  the  number 
of  men  employed  and  the  amount  of  work  accomplish- 
ed. In  1880  one  man  employed  in  conducting  transpor- 
tation was  necessary  to  move  a  certain  number  of  tons 
of  freight  or  a  certain  number  of  passengers  one  mile. 
In  1890  he  was  able  to  accomplish  much  more.  The 
nine  Groups  ( these  particulars  being  missing  in  Group 
VII)  show  the  following  as  the  comparison  of  the  work 
accomplished  by  each  employee  in  these  two  years 
named,  in  tons  of  freight  carried  one  mile. 


HARVEST  OF  THE  RAILROADS.  S3 


6 
20 

86 
61 
16 
28 
43 
54 
32 


The  same  comparisons  with  reference  to  the  passenger 
traffic  show  the  number  of  passengers  carried  one  mile 
by  the  work  of  each  employee  in  1880  and  1890. 

Group  I  iii  1880,      54,863,  in  1890,      60,583,     Increase  11  per  cent 
II        "  29,050,        "  33,093,  14 


Group 

I  in  1880, 

88,234,  iii  1890, 

90,961. 

" 

II        " 

219,679, 

233,321. 

u 

III      " 

251,932, 

300,288. 

" 

IV       " 

126,985, 

234,450. 

" 

V 

125,845, 

201,737. 

" 

VI      " 

204,493, 

237,698. 

" 

VIII   kk 

153,391, 

197,473. 

'k 

IX      " 

126,513, 

180,905. 

li 

X 

130,340, 

200,838. 

Total  { 

).  men  " 

1,427,412, 

1,877,771. 

tt 

III      " 

33,154, 

36,747, 

11 

" 

IV       " 

22,770, 

30,726, 

36 

it 

V 

22,603, 

31,641, 

41 

It 

VI       " 

30,526, 

35,227, 

17 

It 

• 

VIII  " 

32,587, 

35,451, 

9 

IX      u 

23,963, 

29,419, 

23 

tl 

X 

59,530,        " 

78,986, 

14 

Total 

9  men  kk 

309,046, 

361,873, 

17 

Thus  is  seen  that  the  earning  capacity  of  all  these  em- 
ployees engaged  in  the  work  of  conducting  transporta- 
tion, considered  with  reference  to  the  whole  country, 
has  increased  32  per  cent  as  to  freight  traffic  and  17 
per  cent  as  to  passenger  traffic,  doubtless  more  than  is 
the  increase  in  the  rate  of  wages. 


34  MMD  TIMti  A XI)  TIAItl'EST. 

And  here,  while  engaged  in  this  digression,  I  am  eom- 
pelled  to  present  another  very  forcible  truth,  viz.,  that 
while  our  own  railroads  pay  higher  wages  they  really 
pay  less  for  labor  than  those  of  other  countries.  This 
seems  paradoxical.  But  it  is  a  fact.  The  railroads  of 
the  United  States  pay  higher  wages  to  their  employees 
than  are  paid  by  the  railroads  of  Great  Britian,  Bel- 
gium, Russia,  Germany,  or  France ;  and  yet  by  reason 
of  the  much  greater  number  of  men  employed  on  the 
roads  of  all  those  European  countries,  their  expenditure 
per  mile  for  labor  is  much  in  excess  of  our  roads.  In  a 
valuable  work  recently  written  by  ex-Governor  Larra- 
bee  of  Iowa,*  and  which  I  shall  take  some  liberties  \vith 
in  the  further  progress  of  this  treatise,  this  fruitful  truth 
is  set  forth.  It  is  not  necessary  to  compare  the  figures 
as  to  all  the  natiens  mentioned,  as  those  of  Great  Brit- 
ian alone  will  answer.  It  costs  the  railroads  of  Great 
Britian  $6,000  per  mile  to  pay  their  employees,  an  av- 
verage  wage  of  $335  per  annum  for  each  of  their  1*8 
men  per  mile ;  while  the  roads  of  the  United  States  pa}r 
$2625  per  mile,  an  average  of  $555  per  annum  for  each 

*  "The railroad  Question,  A  Historical  and  Practical  Treatise  on 
Railroads,  and  Remedies  for  their  Abuses,  by  "William  Lairabee,  late 
Governer  of  Iowa.  Chicago:  TheSchulte  Publishing  Company."  The 
writer  of  this  desires  to  commend  Governor  Larrabee's  great  work 
to  all  thinking  people,  believing  it  to  be  the  most  entertaining,  pro- 
found, just  and  patriotic;  discussion  ever  presented  on  this  great  ques- 
tion. Its  truths  are  so  elegantly  and  so  ably  presented  that  the  work 
furnishes  a  World  of  delight  and  a  store-house  of  information  to  (lie 
reader.  It,  eosts  $1.50.  If  you  want  to  understand  railroad  methods, 
read  i t ,  l»v  all  mea.ns. 


HARVEST  OF  THE  RAILROADS.  35 

of  their  5  employees  per  mile.*  On  this  important  fact 
Governor  Larrabee  says : 

"  The  trainmen  of  Europe  work  less  hours  and  earn 
less  per  capita  for  their  employers  than  do  the  train  men 
of  this  country.  The  average  annual  gross  earnings 
per  employee  on  sixteen  of  the  leading  lines  of  Great 
Britian,  as  shown  by  Mr.  Jeans,  appear  to  be  $975, 
against  $1,600  on  fifteen  leading  lines  of  the  United 
States,  while  the  average  net  earnings  per  employee  are 
$465  on  the  British  lines  against  $720  on  the  American 
lines ;  making  a  difference  in  favor  of  this  country  of  70 
per  cent  in  gross  earnings  and  53  per  cent  in  net  earn- 
ings. If  American  labor  is  more  expensive,  it  is  also 
more  efficient  than  labor  is  elsewhere/' 

Hence  it  would  appear  that  by  reason  of  greater  effi- 
ciency of  American  labor,  the  railroads  are  actually  oper- 
ated at  less  expense  than  British  roads,  or  other  Eu- 
ropean roads ;  and  that  this  efficiency  of  our  labor  is 
still  increasing.  It  ought,  then,  to  reasonably  appeal- 
that  the  railroads  of  this  country  are  in  a  prosperous 
condition,  as  compared  with  the  roads  of  the  other 
countries  named,  so  far  as  expenditures  for  labor  are 
concerned. 

Bulletin  No.  192  of  the  Eleventh  Census  gives  the 
total  wealth-gain  of  the  United  States,  from  1880  to 

*  If  the  hyper-critical  reader  shall  object  to  this  because  6,000  is 
not  the  product  of  335  x  18,  and  2,625  is  not  the  product  of  555  x  5, 
let  him  solace  himself  with  the  thought  that  Governor  Larrabee  found 
1.8  and  5  to  be  the  nearest  whole  number  that  could  express  the  num- 
ber of  employes  per  mile,  and  kindly  omitted  the  fractional  part. 


36  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

1890,  based  on  actual  values  rather  than  assessed  val- 
ues, as  $20,006,000,000.  This  is  so  near  an  even  20 
billions  that  we  may  call  it  that — an  even  2  billions 
per  year.  This  wealth-gain  shows  a  percentage  of  gain 
of  a  fraction  over  45  per  cent  for  the  10  years,  or  again 
of  4^/2  per  cent  per  annum.  This  fact  is  an  important 
one  to  be  borne  in  mind.  It  may  here  raise  a  question 
in  the  inquiring  mind  as  to  the  measure  of  success  that 
shall  probably  attend  the  effort  of  the  great  multitude 
of  borrowers  who  believe  they  can  do  a  legitimate  busi- 
ness on  capital  that  costs  them  10,  12  or  15  per  cent. 
To  the  writer  it  seems  to  be  as  immutable  as  the  law  of 
Heaven  that  where  one  may  succeed  by  chance  ninety 
and  nine  must  fail  through  the  operation  of  natural 
laws. 

Mr.  Adams  in  bulletin  No.  46,  pertaining  to  Group  I 
of  railways,  makes  this  surprising  statement :  "  It  is  a 
little  surprising  to  notice  that  corporate  investments 
for  roads  outside  of  New  England  are  over  three  times 
as  much  per  mile  of  line  as  investments  of  New  England 
railways/'  Perhaps  this  apparently  surprising  fact 
may  be  accounted  for  in  the  further  fact  that  New  Eng- 
land roads  were  built  and  put  in  operation  at  a  time 
when  Capital  was  not  fully  acquainted  with  the  efficacy 
of  "water."  Perhaps  New  England  owners  of  New 
England  roads  are  satisfied  to  let  their  New  England 
neighbors  simply  pay  interest  and  dividends  on  actual 
tends  and  stocks,  requiring  the  blood  of  only  the  West 
and  South  in  atonement  for  the  extravagant  use  of 


HARVEST  OF  THE  RAILROADS.  37 

"  water  "  in  other  roads.  At  any  rate  there  is  no  gain- 
saying the  proposition  that  these  Western  roads  that 
our  New  England  friends  own  cost  less  to  build  and 
equip  than  their  New  England  roads.  If  they  are  capi- 
talized at  three  times  as  much  it  is  all  due  to  the  bless- 
ed and  all-conquering  power  of  "  water.'* 

In  bulletin  No.  46  Mr.  Adams  says :  "From  a  public 
point  of  view  no  question  is  of  more  importance  than 
the  valuation  of  railway  property.  There  are  several 
rules  for  arriving  at  such  valuation,  one  of  which  is  to 
capitalize  at  an  assumed  rate  of  interest  the  earnings  of 
railway  capital.  Adopting  this  rule  for  the  New  Eng- 
land railways,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  more  satis- 
factory data  for  the  calculation  than  that  submitted  in 
the  income  account,  since  the  earnings  and  expenses  per 
mile  of  line  which  it  exhibits  are  a  true  average  based 
on  ten  years  of  actual  operations.  The  amount  of  earn- 
ings on  railway  capital  is  of  course  equal  to  the  amount 
of  interest,  rentals  and  dividends  paid  as  these  items 
appear  on  the  books  of  operating  roads.  For  the  ten 
years  ending  1889  these  payments  amount  to  $169,- 
263,553.67,  which,  reduced  to  the  basis  of  twelve 
months'  operations  and  assigned  to  a  mile  of  line,  show 
that  New  England  railways  paid  yearly  to  the  owners 
of  railway  capital  the  sum  of  $2,676.10  per  mile.  This 
sum,  capitalized  at  the  rate  of  5  per  cent,  gives  $53,522 
as  the  value  of  railway  property  per  mile  of  line." 

Observe  this  reasoning.  After  paying  all  expenses  of 
maintenance  and  operation — repairs,  renewals,  im- 


38  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

provements,  wages,  insurance,  and  taxes — in  short, 
every  possible  expenditure  that  can  be  deducted  from 
the  gross  earnings,  a  certain  sum.is  left  as  net  earnings. 
And  this  sum  is  sufficient  to  pay  5  per  cent  on  $53,522. 
Hence  this  may  be  taken  to  be  the  value  of  New  Eng- 
land railways.  Not  their  cost  or  their  capitalization; 
but  their  value,  because  they  are  profitable  at  that  val- 
uation. This  5  per  cent  is  net,  remember.  That  is  a 
liberal  rate  of  interest,  above  all  expenses.  We  speak 
of  10  per  cent  on  investments.  But  that  is  gross  earn- 
ings of  capital.  Out  of  that  taxes  must  be  paid,  insur- 
ance kept  up  and  all  sorts  of  hazards  taken.  And  the 
5  per  cent  is  more  than  the  National  gain. 

On  the  basis  quoted  above,  allowing  5  per  cent  net  as 
a  very  fair  return  for  capital,  Mr.  Adams  finds  the  rail- 
roads of  the  several  Groups  to  be  worth  the  figures  giv- 
en below,  and  he  finds  them  to  be  worth  those  prices, 
not  because  they  cost  that  much,  nor  because  they  are 
capitalized  at  those  figures,  but  because  they  are  profit- 
able at  the  prices  named.  The  valuations  according  to 
his  calculations  are  as  follows : 

Group  I,  $53,522;  Group  II,  $96,052;  Group  III, 
$35,026 ;  Group  IV,  $19,559 ;  Group  V,  $26,617 ;  Group 
VI,  $38,316 ;  Group  VII,  $29,114 ;  Group  VIII,  $35,309; 
Group  IX,  $22,423;  Group  X,  $45,896. 

This  will  make,  if  the  reader  cares  to  average  it,  some- 
thing over  $40,000  per  mile  of  road.  That  is  to  say 
that  the  entire  railroad  mileage  of  the  United  States 
( good,  bad  and  indifferent )  existing  in  1890  ( about 


HARVEST  OF  THE  RAILROADS.  39 

160, 000  miles)  were  worth  $40,000  per  mile  because, 
for  a  continuous  period  often  years,  they  had  been  prof- 
itable at  that  price.*  The  entire  value  of  the  railroads 
of  the  United  States  (not  their  cost  or  capitalization) 
in  1890  can  thus  be  set  down  at  $6,400,000,000. 

The  capitalization  of  the  roads  in  1890  may  be  set 
down  in  round  numbers  at  $60,000  per  mile.  Thus  the 
160,000  miles  given  by  the  Census  Bureau  at  the  begin- 
ning of  1890  were  capitalized  at  a  total  of  $9,600,000,- 
000.  f 

The  cost  of  these  160,000  miles  of  railway  at  the  sev- 
eral times  they  were  built  is  a  more  difficult  question, 
perhaps,  than  any  other  connected  with  the  railroad 
question.  The  general  consensus  of  opinion  among 
those  best  posted  places  the  figures  between  $20,000 
and  $30,000.  Governor  Larrabee,  in  the  work  already 
mentioned,  declares  $25,000  to  be  a  liberal  estimate  of 
the  average  cost.  This  makes  the  total  cost  $4,000,- 
000,000. 

The  present  cost  of  railroad  building  is  still  more  in- 
teresting. Governor  Larrabee  deals  extensively  with 
this  question.  He  quotes  from  Henry  Clews  in  his 
"Twenty-Eight  Years  in  Wall  Street, "  who  declares 
that  "For  $15,000,000  a  road  could  be  built  where  it 
had  cost  the  Union  Pacific  $75,000,000. "  TheGovernor 

*  If  the  reader  cares  for  exact  figures  they  are  159,215  miles  at  an 
average  value  of  $40,183,  making  $6,397,736,345. 

f  The  mileage  given  in  the  various  Railway  Magazines  for  1890  is 
163,420  and  the  total  capitalization  is  placed  at  $9,746,141,603. 


40  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

refers  to  the  fact  that  "  Very  recently  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  proved,  before  the  Board  of  Equali- 
zation at  Salt  Lake  City,  by  the  testimony  of  engineers, 
that  the  average  cost  per  mile  of  the  Utah  Central  line 
was  only  $7,298.20."  Quoting  from  C.  Wood  Davis, 
the  Governor  shows  us  these  facts :  "Some  years  since 
the  Santa  Fe  filed  in  the  counties  on  its  line  a  statement 
showing  that  at  the  then  price  of  labor  and  mater- 
ials ( rails  were  double  the  present  price )  their  roads 
could  be  duplicated  for  $9,685  per  mile,  and,  the  mater- 
ials being  much  worn,  the  actual  cash  value  of  the  road 
did  not  exceed  $7,725  per  mile."  "In  1885  the  super- 
intendent of  the  St.  Louis  and  Iron  Mountain  Railway, 
before  the  Arkansas  State  Board  of  Assessors,  swore 
that  he  could  duplicate  such  a  railway  for  $11,000  per 
mile."  But  where  is  the  use  of  multiplying  examples  or 
cumulating  evidence  ?  It  is  believed  that  no  one  will 
seriously  dispute  the  proposition  that  with  the  present 
low  prices  of  rails  and  other  materials,  together  with 
the  greatly  increased  economy  of  labor,  the  railroads  of 
the  United  States  could  now  be  built  at  an  average  cost 
of  not  more  than  $15,000  per  mile,  making  a  total  of 
$2,400,000,000. 

Thus,  then,  we  may  conclude  as  to  the  160,000  miles 
of  railroad  dealt  with  in  the  Census  of  1890  : 

Cost  to  build  on  basis  of  present  prices,  $2,400,000,000. 
Cost  when  they  were  built,  $4,000,000,000. 

I'lvnout  Value  on  5  per  cent  net  bn.sis,     $6,400,000,000. 
Present  Capitalization,  $9,600,000.000. 


HARVEST  OF  THE  RAILROADS.  41 

Let  the  reader  understand  that  the  above  figures  are 
not  the  mere  guess-work  of  the  writer.  They  are  not 
the  wild  vagaries  or  the  unsupported  theories  of  a  nov- 
ice in  railroad  matters.  The  present  cost,  it  will  be 
seen,  is  based  on  the  sworn  testimony  of  railroad  men. 
The  original  cost  is  the  estimate  of  the  father  of  tariff 
legislation  in  Iowa,  a  gentleman  who  has  given  almost 
a  life-time  study  to  railroad  matters,  and  been  one  of 
the  highly  respected  Governors  ofthat  great  state.  The 
value  based  on  net  earnings  is  the  result  of  the  labor  of 
Mr.  Adams  of  the  Census  Bureau.  The  capitalization 
is  that  given  by  the  railroad  companies  themselves,  and 
published  in  the  railroad  magazines  of  the  country. 

No  one,  it  is  believed,  will  deny  to  the  railroad  com- 
panies the  right  to  receive  fair  and  reasonable  returns 
on  the  vast  capital  necessary  for  the  construction  and 
operation  of  their  roads.  Such  returns  ought  to  be 
commensurate  with  the  general  wealth-gain  of  the 
whole  country.  Why  it  should  be  any  higher  than  such 
average  gain  the  writer  cannot  see.  Such  average  gain 
is,  as  before  stated,  4%  per  cent.  But  say  the  railroad 
owners  shall  receive  5  per  cent  net,  after  paying  all  pos- 
sible expenses,  including  taxes.  On  what  basis  shall 
they  receive  such  returns  ?  Shall  it  be  on  the  cost  of  the 
roads  to  construct  them  now  ?  The  price  of  other  prop- 
erty is  generally  based  on  present  cost.  That  is  to  say, 
present  cost  of  production  generally  determines  prices. 
A  building  is  worth  about  what  it  would  cost  to  con- 
struct another  like  it,  with  an  allowance,  perhaps,  of 


42  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

some  interest  on  the  capital  during  the  period  of  its 
construction.  Why  should  not  the  same  rule  apply  to 
railroad  property  ?  On  this  basis  the  railroad  compan- 
ies should  receive  $120,000,000  net  earnings  per  year 
on  their  present  probable  cost  of  $2,400,000,000. 

But  we  will  be  more  than  fair  with  the  railroads. 
Let  us  say  the  companies  should  receive  5  per  cent  net 
on  the  cost  of  the  roads  at  the  times  they  were  built. 
This  is  saying  that  the  business  of  the  country  shall 
save  the  companies  harmless  from  the  great  deprecia- 
tion of  values  and  pay  all  the  profit  they  would  have 
been  entitled  to  had  no  such  depreciation  occurred.  This 
is  certainly  a  more  liberal  and  gracious  concession  than 
the  Railroads,  Bankers  and  Manufacturers  would  be 
willing  to  make  to  the  Laborers,  Farmers  and  Trades- 
men were  the  rights  of  the  latter  being  considered.  By 
this  rule  the  masses  of  the  people  should  pay  to  the  rail- 
road owners  $200,000,000  per  annum  as  fair  returns 
on  their  investments.  But  they  did  pay  (not  for  just 
one  exceptional  year,  but  an  average  for  10  years )  5 
per  cent  net  on  $40,000  per  mile.  Hence,  in  1890  they 
paid  this  return  on  a  total  value  of  $6,400,000,000,  a 
total  payment  in  net  earnings  of  $320,000,000.  Will 
not  the  reader  candidly  admit  that  this  is  too  much  ? 
Figuring  on  this  basis  of  the  original  cost  of  the  roads, 
we  find  that  the  people  paid  in  one  year  $120,000,000 
above  legitimate  profits — above  5  per  cent  net  on  the 
original  high-priced  cost  of  construction. 

But  this  is  not  all.     There  are  certain  large  pay- 


HARVEST  OF  THE  RAILROADS.  43 

ments  that  are  deducted  from  the  gross  earnings  and 
included  in  the  operating  expenses  that  should  more 
properly  be  called  net  profit.  For  example,  a  President 
or  General  Manager  not  infrequently  receives  a  salary 
of  $50,000  per  year.  The  bulk  of  such  princely  compen- 
sation goes  to  such  favored  officer,  not  because  his 
talents  are  worth  such  compensation — not  because  his 
abilities  are  superior  to  the  abilities  of  other  men — but 
because  he  is  so  related  to  the  ownership  of  the  road 
that  he  and  his  friends  can  vote  as  large  a  salary  as 
they  like.  The  corporation  Counsellor  whose  annual 
round  up  is  $100,000  receives  it  because  he  is  sufficient- 
ly close  to  certain  stockholders  to  get  it.  And  the  many 
million  dollars '  worth  of  free  transportation  furnished 
in  little  pasteboard  passes  to  the  friends  of  the  stock- 
holders are  part  of  the  price  which  the  masses  of  the 
people  pay  for  their  freight  and  passenger  traffic.  And 
so  it  may  be  said  that  the  following  large  sums  should 
be  added  to  the  net  profit  of  the  railroad  business,  they 
being  now  deducted  as  expenses  from  the  gross  earn- 
ings. The  estimate  of  the  several  items  was  made  by 
C.  Wood  Davis  and  quoted  with  approval  by  Governor 
Larrabee.  The  following  are  some  of  the  more  import- 
ant: 

Estimated  attorneys'  fees  and  legal  expenses  $12,000,000 

Estimated  amount  of  free  pass  evil  80,000,000 

Estimated  payment  to  high-priced  managers,  etc.  4,000,000 

Estimated  payment  to  Presidents  and  other  officers  25,000,000 

There  must  be  presidents,   general  managers,   attor- 


44  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

neys  and  general  officers  to  conduct  the  business  of  the 
roads.  But  is  it  not  safe  to  say  that  a  large  portion  of 
these  several  sums  is  given  through  favoritism  ?  A  por- 
tion of  the  passes  is  given  in  payment  for  legitimate 
work  done  or  expenses  paid.  .  But  it  is  entirely  safe  to 
say  that  more  than  half  the  free  transportation  is  given 
through  favoritism  or  in  payment  for  corrupt  work. 
Of  these  items  we  can  with  entire  safety  add  $40,000,- 
000  to  the  other  $120,000,000  of  excess  above  legiti- 
mate profits,  making  a  total  excess  of  $160,000,000 
per  annum. 

Thus  we  can  say  that  the  railroads  of  the  United 
States  in  1890  drew  from  the  people  in  net  earnings 
$360,000,000.  This  sum  is  $240,000,000  in  excess  of 
their  legitimate  prorfits  if  we  base  their  present  worth 
on  the  present  cost,  and  is  $160,000,000  in  excess  of 
such  legitimate  profits  if  their  worth  be  based  on  origi- 
.  nal  cost.  The  reader  can  take  his  choice  of  the  method 
of  computing  the  extortion. 

We  thus  see  that  $4,000,000,000  of  the  wealth  of  the 
Nation  (the  one-fifteenth  part)  has  taken  to  itself  in  net 
earnings  $360,000,000  of  the  wealth-gain  of  1890. 

But  why  protest  ?  What  rights  have  the  masses  of 
the  people  that  they  may  hope  to  enforce  against  the 
corporations  ?  Thousands  of  railroad  owners  are  aid- 
ed in  their  work  by  thousands  of  political  leaders  whose 
tones  are  tuned  by  the  rythmetic  flow  of  gold.  They 
defy  the  people.  They  demand  to  know  of  you  Labor- 
ers, Farmers  and  Tradesmen  what  you  are  going  to  do 


HARVEST  OF  THE  RAILROADS.  45 

about  it?     Why  presume  to  lift  your  voice  against  a 
power  stronger  even  than  the  Government — a  power 

Whoso  courso  will  011 

The  way  it  takes,  cracking;  ten  thousand  curbs 
Of  more  strong;  link  asunder  than  can  ever 
Appear  in  your  impediment. 


46  SEED   TIME  AND  HARVEST. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


CONCENTRATION   OF    WEALTH   THROUGH    BANKING. 


The  writer  approaches  this  chapter  on  Banks  and 
Banking  with  fear  and  trembling.  The  Banker  is  such 
an  exalted  personage  in  the  community  by  reason  of  his 
highly  respectable  calling ;  honored  by  those  who  have 
money,  and  feared  by  those  who  must  borrow  of  him ; 
if  he  is  a  National  Banker  he  belongs  to  a  system  so  re- 
vered by  the  "patriots"  of  both  the  great  parties,  so 
sacred  in  the  minds  of  many  people  that  "No  image  of 
some  marble  saint  niched  in  cathedral  aisles  is  hallow- 
ed more  from  the  rude  hand  of  sacrilegious  wrong. " 
The  thought  that  the  writer's  hand,  if  it  should  write 
aught  against  this  sacred  institution,  may  be  classed  as 
rude  and  the  work  it  does  as  sacrilegious,  is  peculiarly 
oppressive. 

Who  has  not  heard,  over  and  over  again,  the  declara- 
tion made  by  citizens  of  great  information,  apparent 
honesty  and  supposed  patriotism,  that  the  National 
Banking  system  is  the  best  banking  system  ever  devised 
by  the  wisdom  of  man  ?  This  has  been  told  so  often  by 


HARVEST  OF  THE  BANKS.  47 

these  persons — these  moulders  of  public  opinion — that 
many  have  come  to  believe  it.  And  no  wonder.  The 
writer  is  disposed  to  believe  the  system  to  be  the  best 
on  earth — for  those  engaged  in  it. 

The  report  of  President  Harrison 's  Comptroller  of  the 
Currency,  Mr.  Edward  S.  Lacey,  for  1890,  helps  to  con- 
firm this  oft-repeated  declaration.  Mr.  Lacey  says : 

"  Shareholders  have,  as  a  rule,  received  satisfactory 
returns  on  their  investments,  and  the  people  at  large 
have  been  faithfully  served.  The  growth  of  the  system 
furnishes  indubitable  proof  that  it  is  admirably  adapted 
to  the  requirements  of  a  commercial  people,  and  that 
its  merits  are  becoming  more  generally  recognized  and 
appreciated.  The  increasing  popularity 

of  the  system  will  be  apparent  when  it  is  observed  that 
during  the  present  report-year  307  new  associations 
have  joined  the  system,  and  that  these  are  distributed 
among  41  states  and  territories.  It 

thus  appears  that  the  persistent  attacks  made  upon 
the  national  system,  based,  as  a  rule,  upon  misinforma- 
tion and  mainly  incited  by  baseless  predjudices,  have 
failed  to  bring  about  its  destruction  or  prevent  its 
steady,  indeed,  rapid  extension  in  all  parts  of  the  United 
States.  The  involuntary  confidence  reposed  by  the  peo- 
ple at  large  in  the  associations  of  which  it  is  composed, 
growing  stronger  each  succeeding  year,  has  at  last 
compelled  their  establishment  in  many  countries  long 
falsely  taught  to  regard  them  as  instruments  of  oppres- 
sion and  inimical  to  the  public  good.  So  the  material 


48  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

and  financial  interests  of  the  citizen  prove,  in  time,  more 
potent  than  the  political  predjudcies  of  the  partizan." 

There  is  a  sort  of  exultation  in  the  tone  of  this  utter- 
ance that  almost  suggests  to  the  average  reader  that 
possibly  similar  rejoicing  might  follow  the  operation  of 
one  whose  peculiar  financial  system  had  been  carried  to 
a  successful  issue  in  holding  up  an  express  train  and  ap- 
propriating the  surplus.  There  is  a  sort  of  a  breezy 
bulldozing  about  this  language  that  suggests  danger 
ahead  if  Mr.  Lacey  should  be  given  the  power  to  direct 
affairs.  There  is  an  ill-concealed  condemnation  of  all 
those  whose  " baseless  prejudices"  have  failed  in  their 
"persistent  efforts,"  and  lofty  contempt  for  those  \vhose 
"  misinformation  "has  been  the  menance  of  these  sacred 
institutions. 

But  notwithstanding  all  this,  it  is  refreshing  to  learn 
from  Mr.  Lacey  of  the  "confidence  reposed  b}^  the  peo- 
ple at  large,"  and  to  be  assured  that  this  sublime  confi- 
dence is  "growing  stronger  each  succeeding  year." 
True,  the  confider  might  enjoy  his  bestowal  of  confi- 
dence to  a  greater  extent  if  it  were  a  voluntary  surrend- 
er on  his  part,  instead  of  involuntary — if  he  had  freely 
entered  into  an  admiration  of  the  system  instead  of  be- 
ing forced  into  it.  Most  men  like  to  act  freely  in  the  be- 
stowal of  love,  admiration  or  confidence.  They  .do  not 
like  to  be  drafted  against  their  will  into  these  condi- 
tions. When  two  men  were  quarreling  a  newly-elected 
Justice  commanded  the  peace,  and  to  prevent  its  breach, 
shot  both  the  disputants.  They  died  with  "involun- 


HARVEST  OF  THE  BANKS.  49 

tary  confidence  "  in  the  efficacy  of  the  judicial  act.  Per- 
haps the  Comptroller's  approved  method  of  forcing  "in- 
voluntary confidence  "  is  somewhat  similar. 

This  sweet  "involuntary  confidence  "  which  had  been 
"growing  each  succeeding  year"  would  have  had  a 
happier  ending  had  it  died  prior  to  1893.  It  is  believed 
the  Comptroller  could  not  "write  so  beautifully  of  "con- 
fidence "  in  1893  as  he  did  in  1890.  But  happily  for  Mr. 
Lacey  his  official  duties  have  glided  away  into  the  dead 
past,  and  another  hand  writes  the  report  for  1893. 
President  Cleveland's  youthful  Comptroller,  James  H. 
Eckles,  made  the  last  report  December  4,  1893.  For 
some  reason  Mr.  Eckles  omits  any  and  all  reference  to 
Mr.  Lacey's  "confidence."  Even  "involuntary  confi- 
dence "  is  wholly  ignored.  Mr.  Eckles,  however,  gives 
us  some  figures  that  may  very  well  take  the  place  of  the 
confidence  lecture.  Indeed  it  is  safe  to  say  that  these 
facts  have  taken  the  place  of  confidence.  And  it  is  emi- 
nently proper  that  they  should.  The  last  report  shows 
the  suspensions  of  National  Banks  during  the  year  end- 
ing October  31, 1893,  together  with  their  capital  stock. 
Following  are  the  figures,  the  states  being  arranged  by 
the  writer  in  groups  as  classified  by  Census  groupings : 

STATES.  No.  BANKS  SUSPKNOKD.  CAPITAL  STOCK. 

Maine  ( none ) 

New  Hampshire  2  $250,000 

Vermont  ( none ) 
Massa  elm  setts  (  none ) 
4 


r>o 


STATES. 


SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 
No.  BANKS  SUSPENDED. 


CAPITAL  STOCK. 


Rhode  Island  (  none  ) 

Connecticut  (  none  ) 

New  York 

2 

500,000 

New  Jersey  (  none  ) 

Pennsylvania 

1 

50,000 

NORTH  ATLANTIC  DIVISION 

5 

|800,000 

STATES.                       No. 

BANKS  SUSPH:NI>H:I>. 

CAPITAL  STOCK. 

Delaware  (  none  ) 

Maryland  (  none  ) 

District  of  Columbia  i  none  > 

Virginia  (  none) 

West  Virginia,  (  none  ) 

North  Carolina 

2 

$800,000 

South  Carolina  (  HOIK;  ) 

Georgia 

4 

675,000 

Florida 

2 

200,000 

SOUTH  ATLANTIC  DIVISION 

8 

11,175,000 

STATES.                       No. 

BANKS  SUSPENDED. 

CAPITAL  STOCK. 

Ohio 

9 

$    180,000 

Indiana 

7 

1,000,000 

Illinois 

4 

2,150,000 

Michigan 

3 

215,000 

Wisconsin 

5 

025,000 

Minnesota 

5 

2,400,000 

[owa 

6 

«       575,000 

Missouri 

3 

1  ,300,000 

North  Dakota 

8 

100,000 

South  Dakota, 

3 

225,000 

Nebraska, 

6 

800,000 

Kansas 

8 

880,000 

N'oL-Tii  CKNTKAI,  DIVISION 

55 

110,750,000 

HARVEST  OF  THE  BANKS. 


STATUS. 

No.  BANKS  SUSPENDED 

CAPITA  i,  STOCK. 

Kentucky 

G 

$2,300,000 

Tennessee 

6 

2,750,000 

Alabama 

4 

550,000 

Mississippi 

1 

60,000 

Louisiana  (  none  ) 

Texas 

12 

1,480,000 

Oklahoma 

1 

50,000 

Arkansas 

1 

500,000 

SOUTH  CENTRAL  DIVISION                 31 

$7,690,000 

STATES. 

No.  BANKS  SUSPENDED. 

CAPITAL  STOCK. 

Montana 

10 

$1,875,000 

Wyoming* 

2 

250,000 

Colorado 

1G 

3,600,000 

New  Mexico 

2 

225,000 

Arizona  (  none  ) 

Utah 

3 

250,000 

Nevada  (  none  ) 

Idaho  (  none  ) 

Washington 

14 

1,735,000 

Oregon 

6 

800,000 

California 

G 

1,200,000 

WESTERN  DIVISION 

59 

$9,935,000 

GRAND  TOTAL  158 

$30,350,000 

This  is  rather  a  startling  picture.  During  the  period 
of  one  year  158  banks  belonging  to  this  "Best  banking 
system  on  earth  "  suspended  payment,  and  wrought  in- 
calculable financial  ruin  to  multitudes  of  confiding  peo- 
ple. Their  aggregate  capital  was  $30,350,000.  How 
much  their  liabilities  were — how  much  of  the  money  of 
depositors  was  tied  up  in  these  suspensions,  Comp- 


52  SEED  TIME  A  M.)  IL 1  If )  'EST. 

troller  Eckles  fails  to  show.  Why  he  fails  to  show  this 
important  matter  is  not  clear,  in  view  of  the  many 
other  details  shown  in  his  report.  However,  as  the  de- 
posits of  the  National  Banking  system  at  the  time  of 
the  suspensions  were  more  than  double  their  capital 
stock,  it  is  safe  to  presume  the  same  was  the  case  with 
the  suspended  banks,  thus  indicating  more  than  $60,- 
000,000  of  deposits  placed  for  a  time  beyond  the  reach 
of  depositors.  It  is  believed  this  sum  w as  enough  to 
point  to  ward  a  diminution  of  "  in  voluntary  confidence/' 
and  perhaps  raise  some  " involuntary  doubt"  concern- 
ing this  "  Best  banking  system  on  earth." 

The  reader  will  thus  see  that  "all  is  not  gold  that 
glitters  "  even  about  a  National  Bank.  Some  of  it  may 
be  the  gilded  tinsel  of  " involuntary  confidence."  Their 
foundation  is  not  one  that  can  stand  the  financial  storm 
when  it  comes.  In  spite  of  supposed  careful  Govern- 
mental supervision,  even  honest  bank  managers  will 
sometimes  fail,  and  the  system  is  seen  to  offer  little  se- 
curity for  the  confiding  depositor. 

One  remarkable  fact  appears  in  connection  \vith  the 
record  of  suspended  banks  as  given  above — a  fact  in  en- 
tire harmony,  however,  with  other  facts  herein  stated. 
Seeing  the  Concentration  of  Wealth  in  the  extreme  East 
as  shown  in  Chapter  I,  and  in  the  hands  of  the  Eastern 
millionaire  classes  as  shown  in  Chapter  II,  the  reader 
may  think  there  is  no  need  of  bank  failures  in  those 
states  or  among  those  people.  There  was  no  need,  and 
there  \vere  no  failures,  comparatively.  Think  of  it.  The 


HARVEST  OF  THE  BANKS.  53 

9  little  states  forming  the  North  Atlantic  Division 
(Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey  and 
Pennsylvania )  holding  more  than  one-half  of  the  capi- 
tal stock  of  the  entire  National  Banking  system,  suffer- 
ed only  5  National  Bank  suspensions,  involving  only 
$800,000  capital. 

All  the  rest  of  the  country,  possessing  a  little  less 
than  half  of  the  capital  stock  of  the  system,  suffered 
153  suspensions,  involving  $29,550,000  capital. 

And  yet  we  hear  and  read  heart-rending  accounts  of 
the  financial  distress  in  the  East  that  has  involved  the 
Manufacturing  and  Railroad  interests  in  utter  and 
almost  irremediable  ruin.  Why  do  not  the  banks  show 
it?  They  fall  when  their  support  falls.  The  thrifty 
banker  of  Venice  knew  how  it  was  when  he  sorrowfully 
told  the  court : 

You  take  my  house  when  you  do  take  the  prop 
That  doth  sustain  my  house. 

No,  no !  The  financial  distress  was  not  in  the  East 
among  the  Railroad  owners  and  Manufacturers,  where 
the  Bankers  stood  firm.  It  was  in  the  West  and  South 
among  the  Laborers  who  were  compelled  by  stress  of 
circumstances  to  draw  out  their  little  savings  to  live 
upon ;  among  the  Farmers  whose  products  would  yield 
no  compensating  returns,  and  among  the  Tradesmen 
whose  success  or  failure  depended  on  the  ability  of  the 


•74  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

others  to  buy  and  pay.  And  the  financial  distress  of  all 
these  three  classes  in  the  West  and  South  forced  the 
failure  of  banks  in  the  West  and  South,  153  in  a  total 
of  158.  The  panic  tells  the  story  of  each  succeeding 
year,  and  tells  it  with  an  emphasis.  Those  who  create 
the  wealth  are  forbidden  through  unjust  laws,  to  par- 
ticipate in  its  enjoyment  or  share  in  its  possession. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  enter  into  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  financial  crimes  of  legislation  that  have 
been  committed  against  the  people  for  the  benefit  of  the 
great  Banking  power  of  the  country.  A  chapter  might 
be  written  on  each  of  a  score  of  wicked  enactments 
passed  by  Congress .  since  the  creation  of  National 
Banks.  The  act  itself  that  created  them,  in  giving 
them  the  power  to  expand  or  contract  the  currency  of 
the  country  at  will,  and  thus  absolutely  control  the 
destiny  of  the  whole  people  so  far  as  finances  can  con- 
trol, was  a  reckless  disregard  of  the  rights  of  the  masses, 
amounting  at  least  to  crimnal  carelessness  on  the  part 
of  the  law-makers ;  the  exception  clause  in  the  green- 
back whereby  one  kind  of  money  was  made  for  the  rich 
and  another  kind  for  the  poor,  was  a  wrong  to  every 
man  who  was  compelled  to  accept  payment  in  depre- 
ciated currency;  the  act  for  the  pretended  purpose  of 
Strengthening  the  Public  Credit  was  a  withering  fraud 
on  the  producers  of  the  Nation,  and  was  passed  for  tLe 
purpose  of  strengthening  Public  Plunder  rather  than 
Credit ;  the  Demonetization  of  Silver  in  1873 ;  the  con- 
traction and  destruction  of  the  currency  from  1866  to 


HARVEST  OF  THE  BANKS.  ~>>r> 

1875;  the  forced  resumption  of  specie  payments  in 
1879 ;  the  final  enforced  cessation  of  silver  coinage ;  the 
various  unnecessary  sales  of  interest-bearing  bonds,  in- 
cluding the  Carlisle  crime  of  1894 — these  and  many 
other  infamous  acts  of  legislation  have  been  lobbied 
through  Congress  in  the  interest  of  the  arrogant  and 
oppressive  money  power  of  the  country. 

Does  the  reader  believe  the  National  Banking  system 
has  been  entitled  to  all  the  favorable  legislation  it  has 
received  ?  Let  us  see  whether  or  not  it  could  have  found 
a  reasonable  prosperity  short  of  the  general  destruction 
wr ought  to  other  industries.  May  it  not  be  that  Na- 
tional Banks  have  been  made  too  prosperous  to  accord 
with  other  enterprises?  The  issue  for  February  28, 
1894,  of  "  The  American  Banker,  a  Weekly  Financial 
Journal  Devoted  to  the  Interests  of  Banks,  Bankers  and 
Investors/1  published  in  New  York,  contains  some  quo- 
tations of  the  value  of  stock  in  National  Banks.  In 
view  of  the  present  financial  ruin  that  threatens  many 
of  the  interests  of  the  country,  these  quotations  will  be 
useful  as  showing  how  well  the  Banks  fare.  Following 
are  some  of  those  quotations  given,  the  Banks  named 
below  all  belonging  to  the  National  system  : 

Broadway.        Par  value  of  shares  $  25.  Now  bid  per  share       $200 

Butchers  &  Drovers      "                          25.  170 

Chatham                                                   25.  340 

Chemical                                         "       100.  4,000 

City                                                 "       100.  425 

First                                               "       100.  "                            2,500 


56  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

Mechanics         Par  vahio  of  shares  f  25.    Now  bid  por  share        f  180 

Chase  u  100.  450 

Gallatin  50.  280 

Garfield  50.  350 

Hanover  'k  100.  300 

Importers  &  Traders  "               4i  100.  550 

Lincoln  "  100.  500 

New  York  (Bounty  "              "  100.  575 

Park  "  100.  250 

Second  "  100.  300 

Sixth  u  100.  300 

The  list  given  above  is  not  all  the  Banks  quoted.  It 
comprises  those  that  are  quoted  the  highest.  But  in  all 
the  long  list  of  New  York  Banks  there  is  not  one  quoted 
below  par — all  the  way  from  par  up  to  the  magnificent 
figures  of  $40  in  value  for  $1  of  investment,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Chemical. 

But  National  Bank  prosperity  is  not  confined  to  New 
York.  Fancy  values  are  quoted  in  the  paper  named  all 
over  the  country.  Like  the  ivy  the  National  Bank  can 
be  found  flourishing  where  no  other  life  is  seen.  Here 
are  a  few  specimen  quotations : 

At  Chattanooga  $100  shares  sell  for  $240 ;  Cincin- 
nati, $320 ;  Denver,  $250 ;  Des  Moines,  $320 ;  Indian- 
apolis, $320;  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  $300;  New  Orleans, 
$344;  Omaha,  $225;  Philadelphia,  $380;  Pittsburgh, 
$700 ;  Washington,  $400.  This  list  might  be  extended 
indefinitely,  but  doubtless  this  is  quite  sufficient. 

How  would  Laborers,  Farmers  and  Tradesmen  like 
to  operate  under  legislation  sufficiently  favorable  that 


HARVEST  OF  THE  BANKS.  57 

their  investments  in  the  shop,  the  farm  and  store,  be- 
sides paying  excessively  liberal  dividends  from  year  to 
year,  should  increase  in  value  many  fold,  as  the  stocks 
of  National  Banks  have  done  ?  It  is  believed  that  Labor 
\vould  be  less  wearisome,  and  farming  more  beautiful  if 
their  results  could  be  measured  by  the  same  increase  as 
National  Bank  investments.  If  toil  shall  pay  as  great 
annual  dividend  each  year  as  Banks  have  paid,  and  the 
toiler  see  his  home  increase  in  value  from  year  to  year 
as  Bank  stocks  have  done,  instead  of  decrease  until  it 
reaches  down  to  the  mortgage  debt,  then  things  would 
be  more  fairly  adjusted  than  they  are.  And  why  not? 
Why  should  the  toiler  sow  and  the  Banker  reap  where 
he  has  not  sown  ? 

The  total  capital  stock  of  all  the  National  Banks  from 
September  1,  1889  to  September  1,  1890,  is  reported  by 
Comptroller  Lacey  at  $615,405,515  for  the  first  half  of 
that  fiscal  year  and  at  $634,773,746  for  the  latter  half 
^thus  the  average  capital  for  the  year  was  $625,- 
089,630. 

The  gross  earnings  on  this  capital  were,  for  the  year 
named,  $144,614,053,  equal  to  more  than  23  per  cent. 

Why  are  not  these  gross  earnings  the  correct  basis 
when  considering  the  rate  of  interest  ?  If  a  Laborer,  by 
some  peculiar  stroke  of  fortune,  should  save  a  little 
money,  and  loan  it  out  at  the  current  rate  of  8  or  10 
per  cent  interest,  or  deposit  it  in  a  savings  bank  at  4 
per  cent,  such  rate  is  the  earnings  of  bis  capital.  From 
that  he  must  pay  taxes,  on  such  capital,  provide  for  any 


58  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

losses  that  may  occur,  and  compensate  himself  for  any 
time  or  labor  consumed  in  attending  to  his  capital  so 
invested.  And  so  it  is  with  the  Farmer  and  Trades- 
man. We  make  laws  against  excessive  interest,  and 
almost  all  the  States  have  fixed  a  limit  beyond  which 
persons  shall  not  contract.  Of  the  44  States,  35  have 
such  laws  against  usury.  In  32  of  the  States  10  per 
cent  per  annum  is  the  maximum  rate.  And  this  rate, 
remember,  is  the  gross  return  allowed  for  the  capital 
loaned,  not  the  net.  The  lender,  in  a  suit  to  recover  a 
debt,  is  not  allowed  to  say  that  he  has  devoted  his  time 
to  the  business  of  loaning  his  money  and  should  have 
something  for  that ;  that  he  has  paid  taxes  on  his  capi- 
tal loaned  and  suffered  losses  which  must  be  returned 
to  him,  above  the  10  per  cent.  The  rate  fixed  by  law  is 
the  maximum  gross  rate,  and  the  owner  must  not  be 
permitted  to  receive  compensation  for  labor,  taxes  or 
losses  beyond  that  rate.  Why  make  a  different  rule  for 
the  Banker  ?  Why  shall  not  his  time,  his  taxes  and  his* 
losses  be  " thrown  in"  as  well  as  the  time,  taxes  and 
losses  of  the  other  person?  Why  shall  the  Banker  be 
better  than  the  people  ?  Shall  the  creature  be  greater 
than  the  creator?  Shall  the  stream  rise  above  its 
source  ?  It  seems  so. 

But  let  us*  be  more  than  fair  with  the  Banks  as  we 
were  more  than  fair  with  the  Railroads.  There  is  no 
reason  for  unfairness  with  any  of  these  favored  classes. 
To  be  more  than  fair  we  can  still  find  more  than  enough 
of  which  to  complain.  These  National  Banks  deduct 


HARVEST  OF  THE  BANKS.  59 

from  their  gross  earnings,  " Losses  and  Premiums/' 
$21,292,732;  also,  "Expenses  and  Taxes,"  $51,265,758, 
leaving  the  net  earnings,  $72,055,563,  or  HVzper  cent 
net  pro  fit  after  paying  all  expenses.  It  is  thus  seen  how 
evenly  the  Banks  divide  their  earnings  into  two  parts, 
one-half  going  to  operating  expenses  and  the  other  half 
going  to  net  profit — 11%  per  cent  to  each.  It  is  prob- 
able that  some  of  these  enormous  expenses  should  be 
charged  off  in  considering  profits.  But  is  it  not  possible 
that  all  should  be.  Fancy  Bank  salaries,  like  fancy 
Railroad  salaries,  are  paid  to  the  owners  of  the  capital, 
or  to  those  who  stand  near  enough  to  the  owners  to 
get  it.  Let  us  see.  In  the  average  National  Bank  of, 
say  $100,000  capital,  the  president  or  vice-president 
( possibly  both )  will  receive  salary,  large  or  small,  ac- 
cording to  the  degree  of  supervisory  care  they  bestow 
on  the  business ;  then  come  the  cashier,  assistant  cash- 
ier, teller  and  several  accountants,  with  good  salaries, 
a  total  of  $5,000  to  $8,000,  that  is  as  much  a  part  of 
the  earnings  of  Banking  capital  as  any  other  part  is. 
Take  the  conservative  middle  ground  and  say  that  in 
this  Bank  $6,500  goes  to  these  salaries,  we  then  have 
6%  per  cent  to  be  added  to  the  11%,  making  18  per  cent 
as  the  annual  returns  of  National  Banking  capital. 

Is  not  this  reasoning  fair  ?  If  not,  why  not  ?  Where- 
in is  it  false,  faulty  or  unfair  ?  Custom  does  not  allow 
the  Farmer  to  pay  himself  a  salary  out  of  the  products 
of  his  farm,  leaving  the  remainder  for  profits;  perhaps 
for  the  very  excellent  reason  that  there  would  be  no  re- 


60  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

mainder.  He  puts  his  labor  in  with  his  capital  and 
tries  to  make  some  return  on  the  two  combined — and 
generally  fails.  Why  should  a  different  rule  apply  to 
the  Banker  ? 

On  the  basis,  then,  of  their  reported  net  earnings  and 
the  estimated  salaries  of  officers,  making  in  all  18  per 
cent  per  annum,  the  National  Banks  of  the  country  are 
accumulating,  on  their  capital  of  $625,089,630,  the 
astounding  income  of  $112,516,137. 

Besides  these  National  Banks  there  were  in  1890  a 
large  number  of  State  Banks,  Loan  and  Trust  Compan- 
ies, Savings  Banks  ( stock ),  and  Private  Banks.  These 
are  reported  by  the  Comptroller  as  possessing  capital 
stock  to  the  amount  of  $326,656,607.  There  is  no  offi- 
cial statement  as  to  their  earnings. 

For  some  reason  not  known  to  the  writer  the  deposits 
in  these  Banks  are  much  larger  in  proportion  to  their 
capital  than  are  the  deposits  of  the  National  Banks. 
The  National  Banks  in  the  year  in  question,  with  $625,- 
089,630  of  capital  held  $1,564,845,174  of  deposits. 
The  other  Banks  named  above  with  $326,656,607  of 
capital  held  $1,203,255,549.  Thus  the  Banks  other 
than  National,  with  only  52  per  cent  as  much  capital 
as  the  Nationals,  yet  held  77  per  cent  as  much  deposits. 

A  quotation  from  Comptroller  Lacey's  report  will 
not  be  out  of  place  here.  He  says : 

"The  deposits  of  a  National  Bank  are  now  its  princi- 
pal source  of  profit.  Originally  they  realized  a  profit 
upon  circulation  as  well  as  deposits.  The  high  rate  of 


HARVEST  OF  THE  BANKS.  61 

premium  commanded  in  the  market  by  the  interest-bear- 
ing bonds  of  the  United  States,  which  are  required  to  be 
deposited  by  these  banks  as  security  for  their  circula- 
tion, has  rendered  the  issue  of  circulating  notes,  in  most 
localities,  unprofitable.  Hence  National  Banks  now  or- 
ganizing issue  only  so  much  of  circulation  as  is  obliga- 
tory under  the  law.  They  are  fully  cognizant  of  the 
fact  that  no  profit  will  be  realized  on  account  of  the 
right  to  issue  notes,  and  proceed  in  their  organization 
mainly  because  of  the  gain  to  result  by  reason  of  de- 
posits. " 

The  reader  will  have  no  difficulty  to  discover  another 
reason,  in  addition  to  that  given  by  Mr.  Lacey,  for  the 
decrease  in  the  National  Bank  circulation.  It  reached 
its  highest  volume  in  1874,  being  then  in  round  num- 
bers 340  million  dollars.  It  decreased  from  that  year 
onward  until  in  1890  the  amount  was  less  than  123 
millions.  The  Banks  had  learned  they  could  gain  more 
from  a  contracted  circulating  medium  than  from  an  ex- 
panded one.  And  thus  they,  in  order  to  decrease  the 
money  of  the  country,  began  to  do  their  share  toward 
contraction.  How  well  they  have  done  it  is  written  on 
every  foreclosure  proceeding  and  in  every  forced  sale 
throughout  the  land. 

But  the  source  of  a  National  Bank's  profits  are  the 
deposits,  Mr.  Lacey  tells  us.  There  is  probably  no 
reason  why  the  other  Banks  should  not  make  as  large 
a  proportionate  gain  on  their  deposits  as  the  Nationals. 
True,  the  Nationals  make  a  portion  of  their  profits  on 


62  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

Government  Bonds,  but  relatively  that  portion  is  not 
large  now  that  their  circulation  has  fallen  off  so  largely. 
Having  a  less  rigid  supervision,  perhaps,  than  the  Nat- 
ionals, in  some  of  the  States,  and  with  more  liberty  as 
to  certain  classes  of  investments,  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
the  earnings  of  other  Banks  from  deposits  are  propor- 
tionately as  large  as  the  Nationals.  This  \vould  give 
to  the  Banks  other  than  National  annual  profits  of 
$86,637,425.  This  sum  added  to  the  profits  of  the 
National  Banks  ($112,516,137)  makes  a  total  profit 
of  $199,153,562  as  the  income  derived  by  the  Banks 
and  Bankers  from  the  people  of  the  Nation. 

Think  of  it  ?  Here  is  less  than  one  billion  of  the  total 
wealth  of  the  United  States  (less  than  one-sixtieth) 
engaged  in  Banking,  and  this  accumulates  200  mill- 
ion dollars  ( one-tenth )  of  the  total  wealth-gain.  Re- 
member the  general  wealth-gain  is  4%  per  cent.  Bank- 
ing, occupying  as  favorable  a  position  as  other  busi- 
nesses, should  receive  not  more  than  50  million  dollars, 
instead  of  200  millions.  But  allowing  this  business 
double  the  profits  that  go  to  the  general  business  of  the 
country,  and  it  then  takes  100  million  dollars  too  much 
from  the  industries  of  the  Nation .  Our  law-makers  have 
been  doing  what  the  Roman  citizen  charged  against  his 
law-makers :  "  Make  edicts  for  usury,  to  support  usur- 
ers; repeal  daily  any  wholesome  act  established  against 
the  rich,  and  provide  more  piercing  statutes  daily,  to 
chain  up  and  restrain  the  poor." 


HARVKST  Or  THK  MANUFACTURERS. 


CHAPTER  V. 


CONCENTRATION  OF  WEALTH  THROUGH  MANUFACTURES. 


The  reader,  I  know,  has  been  greatly  interested  thus 
far  in  rioting  the  concentration  of  wealth,  considered 
•with  reference  to  geographical  divisions  as  well  as  with 
reference  to  classes,  as  shown  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ters. If  he  has  hitherto  given  no  attention  to  these 
matters  he  has  been  surprised  as  well  as  interested  by 
by  these  revelations.  As  we  have  discovered  that  a 
large  proportion  of  these  millionaire  fortunes  is  de- 
rived from  manufactures,  I  will  now  ask  the  reader's 
attention  to  some  important  truths  concerning  that 
great  field  of  American  enterprise. 

The  Census  of  1890  is  much  more  complete  than  any 
that  has  preceded  it,  in  going  into  the  details  of  many 
industries.  The  reports  of  the  Eleventh  Census  would 
have  been  very  valuable  assistants  to  the  student  of 
economics,  had  they  been  published  in  reasonable  time. 
They  will  still  be  valuable  aids  hereafter  if  they  shall 
ever  be  published.  Whether  or  not  they  ever  will  be 
published  I  am  not  advised.  It  has  frequently  been  said, 


64  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

and  apparently  with  some  show  of  reason,  that  the  full 
publication  is  being  withheld  by  those  who  control 
National  partisan  politics,  because  it  is  not  desired  by 
them  that  voters  shall  become  too  familiar  with  many 
of  the  potent  facts  therein  revealed.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
it  is  certain  that  the  work  of  the  Census  takers  perform- 
ed nearly  four  years  previous  to  this  writing  has  not  yet 
been  given  to  the  general  public  in  the  shape  of  publish- 
ed volumes.  However,  some  hundreds  of  different  bulle- 
tins, pertaining  to  many  different  matters,  have  been 
issued  and  distributed  to  editors,  bankers,  lawyers,  etc. 
In  writing  "  Bondholders  and  Breadwinners/'  early  in 
1892,  it  was  there  said :  "  The  earnest  reformer  of  things 
politically  evil  will  need  no  text  book  but  Mr.  Porter's 
Eleventh  Census  Report,  and  not  having  that  in  time 
for  next  year,  will  be  able  to  proceed  very  nicely  with 
the  bulletins  that  are  being  sent  out."  The  language 
is  appropriate  now  for  this  volume  as  it  was  then  for 
that. 

Prom  the  large  number  of  bulletins  that  have  been 
sent  out  from  the  Census  Bureau  pertaining  to  manu- 
facturing interests,  there  being  one  for  every  principal 
city  and  town  in  the  United  States,  the  following  fig- 
ures are  taken,  concerning  the  manufacturing  interests 
of  the  ten  largest  cities.  Ten  cities  are  taken  because 
that  number  is  sufficient  for  the  purpose  of  illustration. 
The  entire  list  of  all  the  cities  in  the  Nation  is  not  taken 
because  this  volume  is  not  sufficiently  elaborate  to  ad- 
mit of  doing  so.  The  ten  largest  cities  are  taken  be- 


HARVEST  OF  THE  MANUFACTURERS.  65 

cause  their  manufacturing  interests  are  the  largest  and 
most  diversified,  and  consequently  furnish  the  fairest 
basis  for  calculation.  I  believe  this  will  be  conceded  as 
fair.  Thus,  then,  the  ten  cities  and  their  manufactur- 
ing business  during  the  Census  year  of  1890,  the  cities 
named  in  the  order  of  their  size,  and  their  business  giv- 
en as  follows : 

BULLETIN  No.  211 — CITY  OF  NEW  YORK. 

Capital  invested  in  Manufactures,  f  420,238,602. 

Value  of  manufactured  products $763,833,923 

Wages  paid $228,537,295 

Cost  of  materials  used 357,086,305 

Miscellaneous  expenses 60,223,425       645,847,025 

Profit ...$117,986,898 

Percentage  of  Profit  on  Capital,  28. 

BULLETIN  No.  222 — CITY  OF  CHICAGO. 

Capital  invested,  $292,477,038 

Value  of  Manufactured  Products $632,184,140 

Wages  paid $119,146,357 

Cost  of  materials  used 386,814,848 

Miscellaneous  expenses 41,550,761       547,511,966 

Profit ...$  847672,174 

Percentage  of  Profit  on  Capital,  29. 

BULLETIN  No.  244 — CITY  OF  PHILADELPHIA. 

Capital  invested,  $362,895,272 

Value  of  Manufactured  Products $564,323,762 

Wages  paid $132,436,268 

Cost  of  materials  used 302,623,539 

Miscellaneous  expenses 39,505,579       474,565,386 

Profit . $  89,758,376 

Percentage  of  Profit  on  Capital,  22, 


C>C>  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

BULLETIN  No.  234 — CITY  OF  BROOKLYN. 

Capital  invested,  $125,849,052 

Value  of  manufactured  products $248,750,184 

Wages  paid $  61,975,702 

Cost  of  materials  used 137,325,749 

Miscellaneous  expenses 14,824,4G6       214,125,91 7 

Profit $  34,624,267 

Percentage  of  Profit  on  Capital,  27. 

BULLETIN  No.  170— CITY  OF  ST.  Louis. 

Capital  invested,  $133,292,699 

Value  of  manufactured  products $225,500,657 

Wages  paid $  52,170,536 

Cost  of  materials  used 120,887,355 

Miscellaneous  expenses 17,381,274       190,439,165 

Profit $  35,061,492 

Percentage  of  Profit  on  Capital,  26. 

BULLETIN  No.  232 — CITY  OF  BOSTON. 

Capital  invested,  $116,644,490 

Value  of  manufactured  products $208,104,683 

Wages  paid $  54,636,695 

Cost  of  materials  used 104,631,879 

Miscellaneous  expenses 21,399,162       180,667,736 

Profit $  27,436,947 

Percentage  of  Profit  on  Capital,  24. 

BULLETIN  No.  269— CITY  OF  BALTIMORE. 

Capital  invested,  $82,526,344 

Value  of  manufactured  products $140,401,026 

Wages  paid $35,377,538 

Cost  of  materials  uwcd 73,614VS2<) 

Miscellaneous  expenses 8,093,119       117,085,486 

I'mfit $  23,315,5-10 

Percentage  of  Prolil  on  Cnpiial,  28. 


HARVEST  OF  THE  MANUFACTURERS.  07 

BULLETIN  No.  246— CITY  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO. 
Capital  invested,  f  65,612,049 

Value  of  manufactured  products $131  ,263,713 

Wages  paid $29,860,057 

Cost  of  materials  used 77,188,061 

Miscellaneous  expenses 7,901,164       114,949,282 

Profit $  16,314,431 

Percentage  of  Profit  on  Capital,  25. 

BULLETIN  No.  270 — CITY  OF  CINCINNATI. 

Capital  invested,  $89,886,796 

Value  of  manufactured  product f  1  78,650,185 

Wages  paid $43,934,384 

Cost  of  materials  used 83,090,968 

Miscellaneous  expenses 18,338,352       145,363,704 

Profit $  33,286,481 

Percentage  of  Profit  on  capital,  37. 

BULLETIN  No.  231 — CITY  OF  CLEVELAND. 
Capital  invested,  $56,826,496 

Value  of  manufactured  products $104,199,169 

Wages  paid $27,596,408 

Cost  of  materials  used 58,763,062 

Miscellaneous  expenses 4,690,406 91,049,876 

Profit $  13,149,293 

Percentage  of  Profit  on  Capital,  23. 

The  total  amount  of  capital  invested  in  the  manu- 
facturing enterprises  of  these  ten  principal  cities  reaches 
the  astonishing  figure  of  $1,746,248,838.  The  value 
of  the  manufactured  products  of  these  ten  cities,  above 
the  cost  of  wages,  raw  materials  and  miscellaneous  ex- 
penses reaches  the  further  astonishing  figure  of  $475,- 
494,709.  This  latter  sum  appears  as  the  profits  of  the 
year  1890,  and  makes  the  average  profits  of  these  vast 
enterprises  something  over  27  per  cent. 


68  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

Extra  Census  Bulletin  No.  67,  issued  by  Mr.  Carrol 
D.  Wright,  Commissioner  of  Labor  in  charge  of  the 
Census  Bureau,  dated  March  15,  1894,  was  received  by 
the  writer  when  this  much  of  this  chapter  had  been 
written.  Previous  to  the  issuance  of  this  bulletin  the 
information  given  by  the  Bureau  was  that  pertaining 
to  particular  cities  or  particular  industries.  No  totals 
had  been  found.  When,  therefore,  this  work  was  un- 
dertaken, indeed,  when  this  chapter  was  commenced,  it 
was  the  intention,  after  giving  the  preceding  statistics 
concerning  the  10  principal  cities,  to  then  found  the  fur- 
ther statements  concerning  Manufactures  on  estimates 
based  on  these  cities.  But  fortunately  this  official  bulle- 
tin now  supplies  the  missing  link  and  renders  estimates 
unnecessary.  This  bulletin  is  a  complete  compilation 
of  all  the  manufacturing  industries  of  the  entire  United 
States. 

From  this  official  document  we  learn  some  wonder- 
ful facts,  the  first  of  which  is  that  Capital  employed  in 
Manufactures  has  increased  121  per  cent  from  1880  to 
1890.  This  is  a  wonderful  fact,  in  connection  with  the 
further  facts  that  during  the  same  time  population  has 
increased  25  per  cent  and  the  Nation's  wealth  45.  The 
total  capital  in  this  great  branch  of  American  industry 
is  now  reported  to  be  the  astounding  sum  of  $6,524,- 
375,305.  Is  it  strange  that  there  should  be  stagnated 
business  in  those  industries  where  capital  had  been 
more  than  doubled  during  a  decade  showing  only  an 
increase  of  25  per  cent  in  population  ?  Certainly,  while 


HARVEST  OF  THE  MANUFACTURERS.  69 

the  capitalists  assure  the  producers  that  their  cheap 
prices  are  due  to  overproduction,  it  would  be  well  for 
them  to  think  of  the  same  cause  operating  with  Manu- 
facturers. And  yet  we  do  not  find  the  effects  nearly  so 
disastrous  with  them  as  with  the  Farmers. 

As  this  chapter  deals  with  the  profits  of  the  Manu- 
facturers, it  is  well  that  the  reader  should  understand 
the  calculations  by  which  the  Census  Bureau  arrives  at 
its  conclusions.  The  details  of  all  manufacturing  enter- 
prises are  as  in  the  example  here  given.  This  example 
is  taken  from  New  York,  and  relates  to  the  business  of 
1,554  establishments  for  the  manufacture  of  men's 
clothing  (factory  product).  The  detail  statement  is 
given  as  follows : 

CAPITAL  EMPLOYED  : 

,  Hired  property $18,809,332 

PLANT : 

Land 86,000 

Buildings 503,000 

Machinery,  tools  and  implements 691,025 

LIVE  ASSETS  : 

Raw  materials 5,682,026 

Stock  in  process  and  finished 12,445,012 

Cash,  bills  and  accounts,  and  all  sun- 
dries not  elsewhere  reported 10,374,660 

Total  Capital $48,591,055 

Aggregate  value  of  manufactured  goods $68,630,780 

WAGES  PAID $22,548,892 

MATERIALS  USED: 

Principal  materials 30,853,293 

Fuel 64,310 

Mill  supplies 

All  other  materials 322,847 


70  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

MISCELLANEOUS  EXPENSES: 

Amount  paid  for  contract  work $2,322,308 

Rent 1,253,017 

Power  and  hoat 244 

Taxes 14,289 

Insurance 167,843 

Ordinary  repairs  of  b'ld'gs  and  m  Vhy        46,349 

Interest  on  cash  used  in  business 32,780 

All  sundries  not  elsewhere  reported 350,694      $57,976,866 

Net  Profit $10,653,914 

Per  cent  of  profit  on  Capital  ( other  than  hired  property  which  re- 
ceived its  profit  in  rent )  37. 

The  above  is  taken  as  a  sample  of  one  year's  opera- 
tions in  those  large  enterprises.  The  critical  reader 
will  doubtless  consider  that  every  possible  charge  has 
been  made  and  deducted  from  the  output  of  the  enter- 
prises, and  that  the  remainder  is  fairly  stated  as  the 
net  profits. 

Upon  that  basis  census  figures  were  made.  Having 
read  and  studied  the  foregoing  condensed  statement 
concerning  the  business  of  the  ten  principal  cities,  the 
reader  will  doubtless  be  interested  in  the  business  per- 
taining to  the  principal  industries,  considered  with  ref- 
erence to  the  entire  country.  The  figures  relating  to 
twenty  of  the  leading  industries  in  the  United  States, 
based  on  the  same  system  as  given  in  the  preceding  ex- 
ample, are  as  follows : 

Lumber  and  other  mill  products  from  logs  or  bolls,  cnpilal  in- 

v«'H  (•'<!,  M)()  million  doll  MIX,  profits  1  3  per  r.'iil. 
Ponndry  and  Machine  shop  prodncta,  'isu  milllions,  is  p 


HARVEST  OF  THE  MANUFACTURERS.  11 

Iron  and  Steel,  373  millions,  9  per  cent. 

Cotton  Goods,  354  millions,  8  per  cent. 

Malt  Liquors, 232  millions,  18  per  cent. 

Flouring  and  Grist  mill  products,  208  millions,  14  per  cent. 

Agricultural  Implements,  145  millions,  12  per  cent. 

Woolen  Goods,  130  millions,  11  per  cent. 

Men's  Clothing,  factory  product,  128  millions,  30  per  cent. 

Lumber,  planing  mill  products,  including  sash,  doors  and  blinds, 

120  millions,  19  per  cent. 
Carriages  and  Wagons,  including  custom  work  and  repairing, 

104  millions,  20  per  cent. 
Slaughtering  and  Meat  Packing,  Wholesale,  98  millions,  30  per 

cent. 

Boots  and  Shcres,  factory  product,  95  millions,  27  per  cent. 
Paper,  82  millions,  15  per  cent. 

Leather,  tanned  and  curried,  81  millions,  20  per  cent. 
Worsted  Goods,  68  millions,  13  per  cent. 
Furniture,  66  millions,  24  per  cent. 

Tobacco,  Cigars  and  Cigarettes,  59  millions,  30  per  cent. 
Silk  and  Silk  Goods,  51  millions,  24  per  cent. 
Hosiery  and  Knit  Goods,  50  millions,  19  per  cent. 

It  is  useless  to  pursue  this  matter  in  detail,  as  these 
examples  of  cities  and  industries  are  certainly  sufficient 
to  give  the  reader  a  good  general  idea  on  the  business. 
Let  us  now  consider  the  Manufactures  of  the  United 
States  as  a  whole,  remembering  that  all  calculations 
are  based  on  the  same  system  as  the  example  of  the 
New  York  Clothing  factories,  statement  of  which  has 
been  given.  Here  are  the  startling  figures  of  the  entire 
Manufacturing  business  of  the  United  States  for  1890: 

Capital  invested,  $6,524,475,305. 

Value  of  all  manufactured  products $9,370,107,624 

Miscellaneous   expenses $    630,944,058 

Wages  paid 2,282,823,265 

Cost  of  materials  used 5,158,868,353      8,072,635,676 

Net  profit $1,297,471,948 

Per  cent  of  net  profit  on  Capital  for  one  year,  20. 

This  remainder  shows  the  net  profit  on  the  capital  in- 


72  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

vested  in  Manufactures.  On  6500  millions  of  capital 
there  are  net  profits  of  1300  millions,  or  20  per  cent. 
This  net  profit,  however,  is  subject  to  one  further  re- 
duction. In  each  bulletin  the  Superintendent  of  Census 
says;  " Expenses  of  selling  are  excluded,  because  the 
reported  value  of  product  is  its  selling  value  at  the  shop 
or  factory. "  Hence,  on  the  basis  of  the  value  given,  it 
is  proper  to  exclude  any  expenses  or  commissions  for 
selling.  But  there  is  another  item,  of  which  the  Super- 
intendent says :  "  The  cost  of  depreciation  of  plant  in 
excess  of  the  expense  for  ordinary  repairs  is  not  includ- 
ed, because  the  information  obtained  by  the  inquiry  is 
not  sufficient  to  form  a  basis  for  accurate  computation 
for  the  respective  industries. "  And  yet,  every  one  will 
concede  that  something  should  be  deducted.  Buildings 
\vear  out,  and  machinery  more  rapidly.  This  natural 
decay  goes  on  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  annual  wear 
and  tear.  We  may  bestow  a  considerable  sum  each 
year  to  provide  for  ordinary  repairs,  occasioned  by 
wear  and  tear,  breakage,  or  otherwise.  Still  the  im- 
mutable law  of  decay  is  going  on,  and  a  time  must  be 
reached  when  the  structure  must  be  rebuilt  and  the 
machinery  replaced.  In  buildings  this  decay  is  less  rap- 
id than  in  machinery.  The  capital  invested  in  Manu- 
facturing Plants  is  in  round  numbers,  3239  million  dol- 
lars, divided  thus :  land,  776  millions ;  buildings,  879 
millions;  machiner}',  tools  and  implements,  1584  mil- 
lions. 
What  shall  be  our  judgment  as  to  the  annual  percent- 


HARVEST  OF  THE  MANUFACTURERS.  73 

age  of  depreciation  of  these  classes  of  property  by  reas- 
on of  natural  decay  ?  The  life  of  a  building  is  long — 
perhaps  sufficiently  long  that  one  or  two  per  cent  will 
be  ample  to  provide  compensation  for  this  natural  de- 
cay, in  addition  to  the  annual  ordinary  repairs.  It  is 
believed  that  no  one  will  gainsay  this  proposition :  that 
the  increasing  value  of  the  land  forming  a  part  of  the 
plant,  by  reason  of  the  constantly  growing  density  of 
population — that  is  to  say,  "the  unearned  increment " 
— is  much  greater  than  the  losses  to  the  buildings  by 
reason  of  the  natural  decay. 

The  only  difficulty  we  have  to  consider  is  as  to  the 
proper  allowance  to  be  made  by  reason  of  this  natural 
decay  to  the  machinery.  And  on  this  question  the  writ- 
er appeals  to  a  judgment  far  superior  to  his  own. 

Mr.  Lee  Johnson,  Kansas  City,  Kansas,  Grand  Presi- 
dent of  the  Brotherhood  of  Boiler  Makers  and  Iron 
Ship  Builders  of  America,  a  man  of  large  experience  in 
machinery  and  ripe  judgment  in  matters  pertaining 
thereto,  in  response  to  an  inquiry  from  the  writer  has 
kindly  given  his  estimate,  under  date  of  March  31, 1894, 
and  authorized  its  publication  as  follows : 

"To  answer  your  question  with  absolute  correctness 
is  impossible.  However,  an  approximate  average  may 
be  made  which,  if  not  correct,  will  not  be  far  from  it. 
The  life  of  manufacturing  machinery  is  estimated  to  be 
from  8  to  25  years,  according  to  usage  and  class  of 
machinery.  This  shows  an  average  life  of  about  16% 
years,  and  will  make  the  depreciation  or  decay  about  ' 


74  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

6  per  cent  per  annum  of  the  original  total  cost.  This 
does  not  include  repairs,  which,  in  manufacturing 
machinery,  equals  from  4  to  5  per  cent  per  annum  of 
the  original  cost,  also.  In  the  motive  power  depart- 
ment of  railroads,  the  '  wear  and  tear '  of  machinery 
is  much  greater,  possibly  averaging  from  8  to  10  per 
cent  per  annum  of  the  total  cost,  while  the  overhauling 
and  general  repairs  on  locomotives  will  equal  from  9  to 
12  per  cent  per  annum  of  their  original  cost.  The  differ- 
ence in  the  ' decay '  or  'wear'  between  manufactur- 
ing machinery  and  railroad  machinery  is  very  marked. 
I  believe  the  above  is  a  conservative  estimate  in  view  of 
the  limited  statistics  on  the  subject. " 

It  is  manufacturing  machinery,  not  railroad  machin- 
ery, that  is  considered  here.  This,  Mr.  Johnson  says, 
will  depreciate — will  wear  out — at  the  rate  of  6  per  cent 
per  annum  in  addition  to  the  amount  expended  yearly 
for  ordinary  repairs.  Ordinary  repairs  are  already  de- 
ducted from  the  gross  earnings.  We  have  only  the 
"natural  decay  "  to  provide  for,  and  this,  Mr.  Johnson 
says,  is  6  per  cent  each  year.  This  will  amount  to  77 
millions,  leaving  1220  millions  as  the  absolute  net  profit 
on  the  manufacturing  capital  of  the  country. 

In  nearly  all  the  bulletins  pertaining  to  the  industries 
of  the  cities,  Superintendent  Porter  congratulates  the 
country  on  the  increase  in  the  wages  of  Labor.  On  this 
he  says : 

"Part  of  this  increase  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact 
that  in  many  industries  relatively  more  men  were  em- 


HARVEST  OF  THE  MANUFACTURERS.  75 

ployed  in  1890  and  less  children ;  that  the  percentage,  of 
increase  in  the  number  of  women  employed  has  been 
less  in  many  industries  than  in  the  number  of  adult 
males;  and  also  to  the  fact  that  in  10  years  many 
branches  of  industry  have  improved  the  grades  of  their 
products,  and  for  this  reason  require  more  skilled  and 
higher  paid  employes.  After  making  all  possible  allow- 
ances for  these  changes,  for  the  more  thorough  enumer- 
ation for  1890,  and  for  the  advance  in  quantity  of  man- 
ufactured products,  we  have  a  decided  relative  increase 
in  the  amount  paid  in  wages  between  1880  and  1890. " 
Upon  these  facts  Labor  should  receive  the  earnest  con- 
gratulations of  every  friend  of  mankind.  Wages  have 
been  increased,  not  by  the  voluntary  action  of  Capital. 
Whatever  has  been  accomplished  is  due  to  the  well-di- 
rected efforts  of  Labor  Organizations.  And  the  meas- 
ure of  good  that  shall  hereafter  be  achieved  in  this  di- 
rection will  depend  on  the  more  thoroughly  united 
efforts  of  these  Organizations.  But  the  chief  glory  that 
clusters  around  the  brow  of  Labor  is  in  the  first  cause 
for  the  improvement  assigned  by  the  Superintendent — 
the  decrease  of  child  labor.  This  is  one  of  the  great  re- 
forms demanded,  and  now  happily  giving  promise  of 
accomplishment.  While  the  number  of  all  laborers  has 
increased  66  per  cent,  the  number  of  children  employed 
has  decreased  33  per  cent,  falling  from  181,921  to  121,- 
194.  This  is  a  noted  success  for  Labor  reform.  Chil- 
dren belong  in  the  schools  of  the  country,  not  in  the 
mines,  shops  and  factories.  The  hope  of  the  Nation  is 
in  their  maturer  education  and  intelligence. 


76  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

The  increase  of  AY  ages,  according  to  the  Census  Bulle- 
tin we  are  considering,  between  1880  and  1890  was  38 
per  cent.  In  the  former  year  the  average  earnings  of  the 
average  laborer  were  $348  and  in  1890,  $481,  showing 
a  relative  gain  of  38  per  cent.  That  is,  the  average 
earnings  for  the  average  number  of  laborers  were  $481. 
The  average  laborer  who  worked  all  the  time  was  able 
to  earn  this  amount.  The  reader  must  not  lose  sight 
of  this  fact.  Every  laborer  was  not  able  to  earn  this 
amount.  He  could  only  earn  it  by  workings//  the  time, 
and  as  many  industries  gave  employment  part  of  the 
time  to  many  more  laborers  than  could  be  used  all  the 
time,  his  earnings  were  so  much  less  than  this  average 
£S  his  time  employed  was  less  than  the  whole  time. 
And  this  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  every  instance  where 
the  earnings  of  1890  are  spoken  of  in  this  work. 

But,  if  Labor  gained  in  wages,  how  was  it  with  the 
Producer  in  prices  ?  Manufactured  products  increased 
so  much  in  volume  that  their  value  grew  from  5249 
million  dollars  to  9054  millions,  an  increase  of  69  per 
cent.  How  was  it  with  raw  materials?  No  one  will 
deny  that  the  raw  materials,  increasing  in  volume, 
should  increase  in  value  as  much  as  the  manufactured 
product,  at  least.  Indeed,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
they  should  increase  in  value  more,  because  as  the  vol- 
ume of  business  increases  the  less  the  margin  of  profit 
may  be  made.  The  difference  between  the  raw  mater- 
ials and  the  manufactured  products  vshouldbe  less  in  the 
larger  business  than  in  the  smaller. 


HARVEST  OF  THE  MANUFACTURERS.  77 

We  find  in  examining  this  official  bulletin  that  while 
the  finished  products  increased  in  value  3805  millions, 
or  69  per  cent,  raw'  materials  grew  in  value  from  3395 
millions  to  5018  millions,  an  increase  of  1623  million 
dollars,  or  47  per  cent. 

Why  did  not  the  price  of  raw  materials  increase  as 
much  as  the  value  of  manufactured  products?  They 
should  have  advanced  as  much,  at  least. 

Capital  was  compelled  to  advance  the  wages  of  Labor. 
It  did  so,  but  how  ?  Simply  by  taking  the  increase  of 
wages  from  the  Producer.  Raw  materials  should  have 
shown  an  increase  in  value  of  69  per  cent  in  order  to 
have  shown  fair  treatment  with  the  manufactured  pro- 
ducts. They  should  have  grown  from  a  total  value  of 
3395  millions  in  1880  to  5738  millions  in  1890.  But 
they  grew  to  only  5018  millions,  falling  behind  the  man- 
factured  products  in  relative  gain  720  million  dollars. 
It  was  of  this  sum  the  Manufacturing  Enterprises 
wronged  the  Producers,  yielding  part  of  the  booty  by 
compulsion  to  the  Laborers  and  keeping  part  them- 
selves, being  thus  enabled  to  accumulate  20  percent  net 
profit  per  annum. 

And  this  system  of  economics  goes  on  and  on  in  a  sub- 
lime sweep  of  never-ending  rythmic  flow,  while  the  hun- 
gry multitudes  shout  for  the  heroes  that  would  "  drain 
their  sweat  and  drink  their  blood !"  What  a  pretty 
thing  it  is!  One  great  party  in  favor  of  "Tariff  for 
revenue  onl  //'  and  the  other  great  party  in  favor  of 
"  Only  tariff  for  revenue."  One  great  party  in  favor  of 


78  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

knocking  "  protection  "  from  tinder  the  Democratic  sug- 
ar producers  of  the  South,  and  the  other  retaliating 
with  free  trade  for  the  Republican  wool  gro\vers  of  the 
North.  And  now,  finally,  after  many  years  of  sham 
battles  on  false  issues,  one  party  demanding  higher 
tariff  on  manufactured  goods  so  that  the  Manufacturer 
may  sell  dearer  and  make  greater  profits ;  the  other  de- 
manding free  trade  in  raw  materials  in  order  that  he 
may  buy  cheaper  and  make  larger  profits.  They  both 
arrive  at  the  same  goal — increased  profits  for  the  Man- 
ufacturer. The  one  theory  is  to  rob  the  Consumer  by 
too  high  prices  and  the  other  to  rob  the  Producer  by 
too  low  prices — all  in  the  interest  of  Capital. 

So  long  as  the  country  shall  adhere  to  the  tariff  idea, 
there  can  be  no  greater  wrong  upon  the  Producer  than 
this  idea  of  free  raw  materials.  The  Farmer  who  takes 
a  hide  to  town  and  trades  it  for  a  hitch  strap,  should 
get  a  very  good  idea  of  the  beauties  of  protected  leather 
which  he  buys  and  free  hide  which  he  sells.  Or,  taking 
the  clip  of  half  a  dozen  sheep  to  tow^n  and  trading  it  at 
the  store  for  cloth  enough  to  make  a  pair  of  trousers, 
should  see  the  beauties  of  protection  as  applied  to  wool- 
en goods  which  he  buys  and  free  trade  as  applied  to  the 
wool  which  he  sells. 

The  poor  tramp  was  not  to  blame,  who,  hired  by  the 
Farmer  to  shear  sheep  began  at  the  tail  rather  than  the 
head, and  explained  the  innovation  by  assuring  his  em- 
ployer of  his  inability  to  look  an  honest  sheep  in  the  face 
since  he  voted  for  the  present  administration  and  10 


HARVEST  OF  THE  MANUFACTURERS.  79 

cent  wool.  But  this  work  is  not  a  tariff  treatise — that 
is,  only  "  incidentally/*  But  if  tariff  must  come,  in  the 
name  of  justice  to  the  Producers,  let  them  have  some 
benefits,  and  not  strain  every  nerve  to  give  all  the  prof- 
its to  Manufacturers. 

Gentlemen  talk  of  the  ill  success  of  Manufacturers 
since  the  Census  year.  In  reading  these  statements  of 
the  fabulous  profits  made  by  this  greatest  branch  of 
American  industry,  defenders  of  the  system  will  tell  us 
we  should  show  the  losses  of  1893  as  well  as  the  gains 
of  1890.  This  of  course  cannot  be  done,  there  being  no 
data  to  govern  such  inquiry.  Manufacturers  have 
doubtless  found  less  remunerative  business  since  1890 
than  prior  thereto.  In  the  nature  of  things  this  must 
be  true.  A  long  series  of  systematic  plundering  of  the 
people  under  the  guise  of  "  Protecting  American  Labor  " 
bore  legitimate  fruit.  A  time  necessarily  must  come 
when  the  people  could  stand  it  no  longer.  The  lemon 
squeezed  dry  must  cease  to  yield  its  juices — the  people 
robbed  of  all  must  cease  to  yield  more  money.  Pro- 
ducts of  the  factory  could  not  be  sold  because  the  peo- 
ple could  not  buy.  This  fact  was  a  very  good  reason 
for  many  enterprises  to  shut  down.  And  then  an  ob- 
ject lesson.  They  believed  they  could  shut  down  tem- 
porarily and  assign  the  cause  thereof  to  fears  of  threat- 
ened tariff  reduction.  And  so  they  scared  weak-minded 
Farmers,  unthinking  Laborers  and  overreaching 
Tradesmen  into  the  belief  that  the  country  would  go  to 
utter  moral  and  financial  ruin  unless  its  high  standard 


80  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

could  be  maintained  by  a  perpetuation  of  the  robber 
system. 

But  why  discuss  this  phase  of  the  question  further? 
The  reader  has  seen  that  from  the  actual  statistics  of 
the  Government,  taken  in  the  most  careful  and  elabor- 
ate manner  possible,  and  infinitely  more  complete  than 
any  other  Census  has  been,  the  Manufacturers  of  the 
United  States  with  6%  billions  of  capital  (less  than  one- 
ninth  of  the  entire  wealth  of  the  country ),  accumulated 
1220  million  dollars  of  net  profit  (three-fifths  of  the  en- 
-  tire  wealth-gain  of  the  country. )  x 

Remember,  the  wealth-gain  over  the  entire  country 
was  only  4%  per  cent  per  year.  Allowing  the  Manu- 
facturers double  the  average  increase  they  should  have 
accumulated  only  585  millions,  instead  of  1220  millions, 
a  loss  to  the  productive  industries  of  the  country  of  635 
million  dollars.  Is  not  that  enough  to  satisfy  any 
greed?  But  the  politicians  who  seek  to  perpetuate 
these  things  tell  you 

Digest  things  rightly 

Touching  the  weal  o'  the  common,  you  shall  find 
No  public  benefit  which  you  7vcriv<> 
But  it  proceeds  or  comes  from  them  to  you 
And  no  way  from  yourselves. 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  LABORERS.  81 


CHAPTER  VI. 


SOME    VOCATIONS    THAT    DO    NOT    CONCENTRATE. 


We  have  seen  in  the  preceding  Chapters  some  of  the 
methods  for  the  concentration  of  Wealth  in  the  hands 
of  the  few.  In  this  Chapter  it  may  be  profitable  as  well 
as  interesting  to  consider  some  of  the  vocations  from 
which  no  concentration  flows.  There  are  favored  en- 
terprises that  reap  where  they  have  not  sown,  while 
others  sow  where  they  now  have  but  little  hope  of 
reaping.  The  great  heart  of  the  toiling  millions  of  the 
Nation  is  heavy  with  discouragement  and  doubt. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  array  one  class 
of  citizens  against  another  class,  or  one  section  of  the 
country  against  another  section.  If  he  can  show  to 
the  toiling  producer  that  he  is  deprived  of  the  true  meed 
of  his  labor  and  inspire  him  that  is  down  to  rise  \vith 
better  government,  building  up  the  broken  places,  the 
object  of  this  work  will  be  accomplished. 

In  order  to  set  clearly  before  the  mind  some  of  the 
evils  of  the  present  economic  conditions,  a  series  of  con- 
trasts will  be  presented.  The  following  Iowa  object 
lesson  will  serve  a  good  purpose : 


82 


SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 


"  LOOK  HERE, 


UPON  THIS  PICTURE, 


AND    ON  THIS." 


HORACE  BOIES,  LATE  DEMOCRATIC  GOV- 
ERNOR OF  lOWA,  IN  HIS  GREAT  SPEECH  IN 

NKW  YORK,  DECEMBER.  1890: 

Statistics  show  that  the  average  wages 
of  able-bodied  men  upon  the  farms  of 
Iowa  are  $18.50  per  month,  or  about  70 
cents  per  day  and  board,  the  lowest  price 
paid  any  class  of  like  laborers  in  the  state; 
a  rid. vet  out  of  900  farmers  reporting  to 
our  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics 
during  the  present  year,  more  than  800 
claim  this  help  at  these  wages  has  been 
employed  at  a  loss,  instead  of  a  profit 
during  each  of  the  five  years  last  past. 

Out  of  the  same  number  an  equal  por- 
tion assert  that  the  actual  cost  of  pro- 
ducing a  corn  crop,  the  most  profitable  of 
all  that  are  raised  within  the  state,  has, 
during  the  same  period,  exceeded  the  en- 
tire value  of  the  crop  when  harvested, 
Haying  nothing  whatever  of  income  from 
the  capital  invested  in  the  laud  required 
to  produce  it. 

It  is  estimated  by  those  making  these 
reports  that  the  cost  of  producing  an 
acre  of  corn  ready  for  market  IB  $8.00; 
that  the  average  crop  for  five  years  has 
been  33  bushels,  and  statistics  show  that 
the  average  price  of  this  corn  in  our  local 
markets  soon  after  harvest,  during  such 
period,  has  been  22  cents  per  bushel,  mak- 
ing the  entire  value  of  the  crop 
when  marketed,  $7.33,  or  67  cents  less 
than  the  actual  cost  of  production  at 
market  rates  of  labor.  What  is  true  of 
the  production  of  corn  in  Iowa  is  equally 
true  of  all  the  great  staples  raised  on  her 
farms. 

It  is,  however,  if  we  stop  to  reflect,  easy 
to  discern  that  if  the  chief  business  of  a 
country  is  being  done  at  a  loss,  and  that 
the  country  is  becoming  rich,  there  must 
l>o  some  flagrant  error  in  the  industrial 
system  that  produces  such  a  result. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  s;iy  there  is  no  pos- 
sible just  ifiration  fora  system  of  laws 
that  produces  such  a  result. 

It  is  infinitely  better  that  this  Niition 
should  remain  poor,  with  its  property, 
such  as  it  has,  (list  ributed  among  all  its 
classes,  than  become  the  richest  on  the 
globe  with  its  wealth  concentrated  in  the 
hands  of  a.  few. 


WILLIAM  LARRABEE,  LATE  REPUBLICAN 
GOVERNOR  OP  IOWA,  IN  HIS  GREAT 
WORK  ON  THE  RAILROAD  QUESTION: 

Stock  and  bond  inflation,  it  may  confi- 
dently be  asserted,  has  created  from  live 
to  six  thousand  millions  of  dollars  of  fic- 
titious railroad  capital .  In  1890  the  aver- 
age liabilities  of  the  railroads  of  the  Unit- 
ed States,  including  capital  stock  and 
the  funded  and  unfunded  debt,  were$<!3,- 
(500  per  mile.  According  to  Mr.  Poor's 
estimate  of  the  average  cost  of  American 
railroads  per  mile,  more  than  50  per  cent 
of  this  vast  sum  is  pure  water. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  $25,000  is  a  liberal 
estimate  of  the  average  cost  per  mile  of 
American  roads  to  the  stock  and  bond- 
holders, and  that  their  capitalization  re- 
presents $38,000  of  water  per  mile.  The 
total  net  earnings  of  the  railroads  of  the 
country  were  $341,666,689  in  1890,  and 
$356,227,883  in  1891,  upon  an  actual  in- 
vestment of  only  about  $4,225,000,000. 
This  is  a  return  of  about  8%  per  cent, 
and  shows  the  force  of  Mr.  Poor's  state- 
ment that,  if  the  water  was  sqeezed  out 
of  railroad  securities,  no  better  paying 
investment  could  be  found  in  the  country. 

We  often  see  reference  to  the  fact  that 
no  dividends  are  paid  upon  a  large  por- 
tion of  railroad  stocks,  but  there  is  no 
reason  why  dividends  should  be  paid  up- 
on many  of  them,  as  they  represent  no 
capital  whatever  that  has  gone  into  the 
road. 

It  is  probable  that  not  to  exceed  ten 
cents  on  the  dollar  on  the  average  was 
originally  paid  for  these  stocks,  and  the 
$80,000,000  distributed  annually  as  divi- 
dends upon  them  does  no*  var.v  much 
from  15  to  25  per  cent  upon  the  amount 
actually  invested  in  them. 

<JroH8  earnings  of  Iowa  railroads  for 
year  ending  .Juno,  1-sM).  $;',7.4<;!»,:{7<5.  For 
is'.io.  $4l.:Mx,i:w.  For  1x91,  $43,102,899. 
For  1X92,  $44,540,000.  The  net  earnings 
per- mile  of  the  Iowa  roads  wore  $1.421.- 
91  in  the  year  lsss-s9.  and  $l,S21.:i7  the 
.voar  following.  The  total  not  earnings 

of  all  Iowa  roads  daring  the  year  ending 
June 80th,  1891,  wore  $i4,4<;:!,lo<;.  against 
$11.S(;i,:no,  during  the  year  ending  .him' 
30th,  Ixs'.l.  and  were  still  greater  for  the 
year  ending  .hllie  ;',<)<  h,  IX9± 


'SEED  TIME  OF  THE  LABORERS.  S3 

Here  we  have  the  testimony  of  a  most  highly  respect- 
ed citizen  and  honored  Governor  of  the  great  agricul- 
tural state  of  Iowa,  showing  that  farming  is  unprofit- 
able in  that  most  fertile  of  states.  And  he  speaks  not 
as  one  unadvised,  for  Governor  Boies  is  one  of  the  large 
farmers  of  the  State.  Agriculture,  that  has  made  Iowa 
great,  is  unprofitable — done  at  an  actual  loss  in  addi- 
tion to  the  loss  of  all  returns  on  the  capital  invested. 

Another  respected  citizen  and  honored  Governor  gives 
his  testimony  on  the  railroad  question.  Governor 
Larrabee  has  been  an  extensive  shipper,  railroad  direct- 
or, president  and  manager.  He  knows  whereof  he 
speaks.  And  knowing  he  tells  us  that,  for  all  the  Union, 
railroads  pay  8%  per  cent  net  returns  after  paying  all 
expenses,  repairs,  improvements,  fancy  salaries,  taxes, 
etc.  That  the  Iowa  roads  paid  over  $1800  per  mile 
net  profits  when  farms  were  being  conducted  at  a  loss. 
Iowa  roads,  built  on  her  extensive  prairies,  are  perhaps 
built  at  as  little  cost  as  any  in  the  Union.  And  yet 
these  net  earnings,  capitalized  on  the  basis  of  five  per 
cent  net,  pay  fair  returns  on  $36,000  per  mile — perhaps 
fully  three  times  the  present  cost  of  building  such  roads. 
Is  not  the  contrast  sufficiently  marked  ?  Does  not  the 
Iowa  Farmer  sow  while  the  Railroad  owner  reaps  ? 

Another  contrast.  This  one  shall  be  a  Kansas  con- 
trast. It  is  very  well  known  that  Kansas  Farmers 
who  have  fed  stock  the  past  decade  have  not  been  very 
prosperous — not  many  of  them.  Some  have  simply 
kept  even.  A  few  have  made  a  profit,  and  many  have 


84  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

failed.  On  the  whole  the  business  has  not  been  profit- 
able. It  is  even  better  known  than  the  other  proposi- 
tion that  laborers  who  have  worked  the  raw  material 
of  live  stock  into  the  manufactured  article  of  dressed  or 
cured  meats,  have  not  been  able  to  save  anything. 
Where  are  the  profits  ? 

There  are  located  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas  river  in 
Kansas  many  large  meat  packing  establishments.  For 
1890  the  Census  reports  ( see  Bulletin  No.  307 )  record 
the  operations  of  these  six  large  packing  houses  thus : 

Capital  invested,  $8,964,586. 

Aggregate  value  of  manufactured  products. $39,927,191 

Wages  paid $  2,558,526 

Principal  materials  used 31,981,115 

Fuel 132,598 

All  other  materials 170,410 

Taxes 33,545 

Insurance 93,544 

Repairs  on  buildings  and  machinery 70,605 

Interest  on  cash  used  in  the  business 81,651 

All  sundries  not  elsewhere  reported 3,150,795  ^_     38,272,789 

Net  Profit f  1,654,402 

Percentage  of  net  profit  on  capital,  18. 

Observe,  18  per  cent  net  profit,  after  paying  every 
possible  expense  that  can  by  any  course  of  reasoning  be 
deducted.  Taxes  are  paid  and  insurance.  Repairs  are 
made  and  paid  for  out  of  gross  earnings.  But  look ! 
"  Interest  on  cash  used  in  the  business, "  is  paid  from 
gross  earnings.  And  to  cover  all  possible  accidents, 
they  put  down  the  astounding  sum  ol  $3,150,795  as 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  LABORERS.  85 

"  Sundries  not  elsewhere  reported. "  And  yet  after  all 
this  they  cannot  help  showing  more  than  18  per  cent 
net  profit ! 

"All  Sundries  not  elsewhere  reported !"  This  is  a 
most  wonderful  statement,  in  view  of  the  enormous 
sum.  A  comparatively  small  item  can  be  stated,  with 
the  purpose  for  which  it  was  used.  Fuel,  Taxes,  Insur- 
ance, Repairs,  are  but  trifles  compared  with  this  mag- 
nificent sum  of  "Sundries. "  What  is  it?  When  in  the 
common  businesses  of  life  an  agent  spends  money  for 
illegitimate  purposes,  he  invariably  calls  it  "  Sundries, " 
for  want  of  a  better  name.  What  does  "Sundries" 
mean  here  ?  Is  it  a  vast  corruption  fund  in  order  to 
perpetuate  the  present  wrongs,  or  is  it  a  part  of  the 
profits  withdrawn  from  the  business  in  order  to  deceive 
the  public,  or  is  it  both  of  these  and  several  more  ?  * 

Taxes,  $33,545!  Does  the  reader  realize  what  this 
means?  It  is  simply  $3.74  on  each  $1,000  of  actual 
value,  for  State,  County,  City,  School  District — every 
class  of  taxes  levied.  Think  of  it!  On  each  $100  of 
actual  value  these  great  concerns  that  clear  18  per  cent 
net,  pay  37  cents  taxes !  How  is  it  with  the  Laborer 
in  these  great  concerns  ?  As  a  general  rule  he  is  not 
bothered  with  taxes.  But  if,  by  some  peculiar  stroke 


*  If  these  "Sundries  not  elsewhere  reported"  were  added  to  the 
net  earnings  the  profit  on  capital  for  the  one  year  would  bo  about  54 
per  cent,  instead  of  18.  As  the  writer  has  reliable  private  informa- 
tion to  the  effect  that  one  of  these  concerns,  and  not  the  most  profit- 
able one,  cleared  40  per  cent  net  in  1893,  he  is  inclined  to  think  the 
net  profit  in  1890  should  include  the  "Sundries." 


86  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

of  fortune,  lie  should  in  some  way  become  possessed  of 
a  humble  little  home  worth,  say  $1,000,  he  will  be  re- 
quired to  pay  taxes  of  not  less  than  $20.  Six  times  as 
much  as  the  wealthy  Manufacturer  pays !  And  why  ? 
This  low  rate  of  tax  for  the  Kansas  City  Packers  is  not 
exceptional.  It  is  far  above  the  average  taxes  on  the 
reported  industries  of  the  cities  named  in  Chapter  Y. 

But  how  fare  the  Laborers  in  these  great  enterprises  ? 
There  are  employed  an  average  of  4,617persons.  These 
are  nearly  all  men,  there  being  only  126  women  and 
children  reported.  No  one  will  think  for  a  moment  that 
this  army  of  workmen  have  accumulated  any  wealth. 
Their  average  annual  earnings  are  seen  to  be  $554.* 
These  Laborers,  as  a  rule,  have  families  to  support. 
After  paying  rents,  food,  fuel,  clothing,  car  fares  and 
the  multitude  of  "  All  Sundries  not  elsewhere  reported/' 
there  can  be  but  little  left  to  lay  up  for  the  future.  In- 
deed, it  is  safe  to  say  there  is  nothing  laid  up.  And 
why  not?  Why  should  not  the  labor  of  these  men 
count  for  something  ?  Why  should  not  manhood  and 
muscle  be  capitalized  on  a  paying  basis,  and  be  allowed 
to  accumulate  something  over  operating  expenses  ?  In 


*  The  average  number  of  Laborers  in  1890  was  4,617 — some- 
times much  more  and  sometimes  much  less.  A  much  larger  number 
was  employed.  But  the  much  larger  number  was  not  ably  to  find  em- 
ployment all  the  time — only  part  time.  And  the  much  larger  number, 
working  part  of  the  time  was  equal  to  4,617  working  ////  the  time. 
Therefore,  while  the  average  earnings  were  $554  for  nil  the  time,  \  hey 
were  re;  illy  as  much  less  as  the  time  actually  worked  was  less  than 
full  time. 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  LABORERS.  87 

olden  times  a  negro  slave  possessed  a  commercial  value 
of  $1,000.  Have  we  so  degenerated  that  a  white  Lab- 
orer is  less  valuable  than  the  former  colored  slave  ?  To 
rate  him  no  higher,  the  capital  these  Laborers  possess 
in  their  muscle  is  worth  $4,617,000.  That  capital 
ought  to  bring  in  its  proportionate  share  of  the  net 
profits,  even  on  the  very  degraded  commercial  basis 
mentioned.  But  in  truth  and  fact  they  should  do  more 
than  that.  They  should  at  least  have  half  the  profits. 
It  is  no  good  to  say  men  spend  their  wages  for  liquor 
and  riotous  living.  Unfortunately  some  do  this.  But 
in  so  doing  they  simply  take  so  much  from  their  lives, 
and  must  subsist  that  much  the  meaner.  Not  a  man 
gets  wages  that  he  can  afford  to  spend  for  dissipation, 
or  from  which  he  can  hope  to  save  any  considerable 
sum.  It  is  only  such  wages  as  he  should  spend  in  a 
decent  support  of  himself  and  those  dependent  upon 
him.  And  living  decently  he  will  spend  it  all.  If  he 
spends  less  than  all,  he  simply  consents  to  live  that 
much  cheaper  than  any  member  of  the  free  Republic 
should  be  required  to  live. 

Let  us  take  another  example.  This  shall  be  f^pm  Phil- 
adelphia, the  city  of  brotherly  love.  Every  thing  should 
be  fair  and  equitable  there.  Her  8  Sugar  Refineries  are 
reported  thus  for  the  operations  of  one  year  ending  in 
1890: 


83  SEED  TJME  AND  HARVEST. 

Capital  invested,  $8,207,655  (  of  which $1,095,000  in  hired  property.) 

Aggregate  value  of  manufactured  product $46,596,524 

Wages  paid $      753,386 

Principal  materials  used 41,141,841 

Fuel 426,516 

Mill  supplies 6,977 

All  other  materials 260,231 

Rent 76,722 

Taxes 28,279 

Insurance 43,807 

Repairs  of  buildings  and  machinery 37,757 

Interest  on  cash  used  in  business 48,834 

All  sundries  not  elsewhere  reported 349,493         43,173,843 

Not  profit I  3,424,681 

Percentage  of  net  profit  on  capital,  (  other  than  hired  property  which 
received  its  payment  in  rent )  48. 

The  tax  charges  here  are  a  little  less  than  in  the 
Kansas  City  case,  this  being  under  35  cents  per  $100  of 
actual  value.  Considerably  more  conservative  than 
the  Kansas  City  packers  in  "  Sundries  not  elsewhere  re- 
ported, ".  turning  over  to  that  mysterious  fund  only 
about  one-tenth  as  much.  But  the  labor!  Think  of  it, 
ye  toilers !  Paid  for  labor,  $753,386 ;  paid  this  sum  to 
1,519  men  and  1,664  women,  an  average  of  $236  for 
each  person !  How  much  did  they  earn  above  "  operat- 
ing expenses  ?  "  And  the  capitalists  who  compel  them 
to  work  for  starvation  wages  clear  a  profit  of  more 
than  three  million  dollars !  Do  you  like  the  picture  ? 

We  have  in  these  two  examples  as  good  illustration 
of  the  relations  between  Capital  and  Labor  as  we  can 
find.  In  the  one  case  it  is  a  Western  concern  showing 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  LABORERS.  89 

profits  far  below  the  average  of  great  Manufacturing 
concerns,  and  showing  the  rate  of  wages  far  above  the 
average.  The  other  is  an  Eastern  concern  showing  the 
highest  profits  of  any  of  the  great  enterprises,  and  at 
the  same  time  showing  the  lowest  wages.  These  ex- 
amples are  surely  enough  to  point  a  moral  or  adorn  a 
tale.  In  order,  however,  that  the  reader  may  know 
that  no  deception  is  sought,  mention  is  here  made  of 
several  other  enterprises,  figuring  in  just  the  same  man- 
ner, and  whose  profits  for  one  year  are  shown  below 
( in  each  case  omitting  the  Hired  Property  which  re- 
ceives rent  from  gross  earnings ) : 

Census  Bulletin  No.  222,  shows  186  Clothing  Factor- 
ies in  Chicago,  with  over  12  millions  of  capital,  (em- 
ploying 6,727  hands  whose  annual  earnings  are  $438 ), 
whose  net  profit  is  46  per  cent.  212  Foundries  with  22 
millions  of  capital  employ  12,995  hands  who  average 
$593  per  year;  net  profit,  31  per  cent.  157  Furniture 
Factories  with  over  8  millions  of  capital  work  8,295 
hands  who  earn  $574  each,  and  make  31  per  cent  net 
profit. 

Bulletin  No.  211  relates  to  New  York.  There  1554 
Clothing  Factories  with  nearly  30  millions  of  capital 
employ  37,811  hands  who  average  $597  per  annum; 
net  profit,  37  per  cent.  740  Women's  Clothing  Factor- 
ies with  over  10  millions  of  capital  give  workto24,712 
hands  whose  average  annual  earnings  are  $514  and 
capital  earns  63  per  cent  net. 

Bulletin  No.  219  shows  323  Boot  and  Shoe  Factories 


90  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

in  Lynn,  Mass.,  employing  nearly  8  millions  of  capital 
and  12,616  hands,  who  average  $533  annual  earnings 
and  make  a  net  profit  for  their  employers  of  40  per  cent. 

Bulletin  No.  244  relates  to  Philadelphia  where  717 
Manufactories  of  Textile  Fabrics  with  66  millions  of 
capital  give  employment  to  57,414  hands  whose  aver- 
age earnings  are  $373  per  annum,  and  22  per  cent  net 
profit  is  realized  on  the  capital  invested. 

Bulletin  No.  232,  Boston.  There  191  Clothing  Fac- 
tories with  over  10  millions  of  capital  employ  6,528 
hands  at  an  average  wage  of  $507  per  annum,  and 
make  28  per  cent  on  the  capital. 

Bulletin  No.  367  shows  90  Silk  Factories  in  Patter- 
son, New  Jersey,  with  more  than  12  millions  of  capital. 
They  employ  11,596  hands  who  average  $433  annually, 
and  return  their  employers  27  per  cent  net  profit. 

These  examples  are  all  taken  at  random,  the  only  pur- 
pose being  to  select  the  largest  industries.  These  con- 
cerns deducted  less  "  Sundries  not  elsewhere  reported  " 
than  the  Kansas  City  Packers.  Hence  the  profits  of  the 
packers  appear  more  modest. 

' 'Plate  sin  with  gold,  and  the  strong  lance  of  Justice 
hurtless  breaks. "  A  Carnagie,  a  Rockafeller,  an  Arm- 
our may  wrong  the  toiler  and  the  producer,  and  from 
the  price  of  their  iniquity  give  a  library,  endow  a  col- 
lege, or  found  a  church.  The  pious  throng  will  bless 
the  hand  that  gives,  never  once  thinking  of  the  wrong- 
ed laborer  or  producer  who  has  been  robbed  in  order 
that  the  millionaire  may  bring  his  rich  gift  to  God.  And 
then,  perhaps,  God  gives  the  credit  where  it  belongs. 
Who  knows? 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  FARMERS.  91 


CHAPTER  VII. 


SOME    RURAIv    SCENES     WITHOUT    CONCENTRATION. 


It  is  believed  that  the  attentive  reader  who  has  care- 
fully followed  these  pages  thus  far  is  beginning  to  form 
a  very  good  general  idea  of  the  entire  and  immeasur- 
able injustice  which  the  lesser  number  of  people  and  the 
lesser  amount  of  wealth  have  done  the  greater  number 
of  people  and  the  greater  amount  of  wealth.  We  have 
seen  the  great  Concentration  of  Wealth  into  favored 
sections  and  favored  classes.  We  have  seen  the  Rail- 
road owners,  Bankers  and  Manufacturers  taking  to 
themselves  three  or  four  times  their  just  and  equitable 
reward.  We  have  seen  the  frightful  comparison  of  the 
rewards  of  Labor  with  the  rewards  of  Capital.  All 
these  things  have  been  startling  to  the  student  of 
economic  questions,  who  was  already  well  advanced  in 
the  unwelcome  truths  herein  presented.  If  startling  to 
such  an  one,  how  utterly  overwhelming  they  must  be 
to  the  novitiate  who  has  carelessly  drifted  with  the  cur- 
rent, believing  that  something  was  wrong,  but  scarcely 
enquiring  what,  until  he  now  seeks  to  find  the  difficulty. 


92  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

It  has  been  admitted  in  the  preceding  chapter  that 
the  wages  of  Labor  advanced  during  the  decade  of 
which  this  is  written.  What  of  it?  The  average  earn- 
ings of  the  average  Laborer  in  the  United  States  who 
worked  all  the  time  in  1890  were  $481.  It  certainly 
was  no  more  than  he  was  entitled  to,  and  most  surely 
not  more  than  enough  to  support  himself  and  those  de- 
pendent upon  him.  No  statesman  should  dare  to  re- 
joice for  one  moment  in  the  thought  that  American  La- 
bor in  1890  could  earn  $481,  and  that  this  was  an  ad- 
vance over  former  years.  Pie  should  blush  to  think 
that  wages  were  ever  less  than  that.  It  required  every 
dollar  of  it  to  support  Labor  even  in  meager  decency. 
If  it  ever  was  required  to  subsist  on  less,  the  blush  of 
burning  shame  should  be  as  the  mark  of  Cain  on  the 
face  of  every  law-maker  who  was  responsible  for  the  in- 
famy. If  it  has  advanced  a  little  it  has  simply  come 
that  much  nearer  to  its  own,  and  come  through  its  own 
efforts  which  forced  recognition  of  its  just  claims. 

Let  us  take  a  look  at  some  rural  scenes  from  the  Cen- 
sus. In  discussing  the  relative  number  of  home-owners 
and  the  homeless  in  1890  as  compared  with  1880,  it  is 
unfortunate  that  no  inquiry  was  made  in  1880  relative 
to  the  Laborers.  So  we  cannot  know  what  portion  of 
that  class  of  our  citizens  owned  their  homes  and  what 
portion  rented.  But  with  Farmers  it  is  different.  In 
their  case  owners  and  renters  were  counted  both  years. 
And  from  these  counts  the  student  of  economic  ques- 
tions is  able  to  draw  a  valuable  lesson.  What  a  beauti- 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  FARMERS.  93 

ful  harmony  there  is  in^all  these  startling  facts !  How 
nicely  each  will  line  up  against  every  other !  How  per- 
fectly every  one  will  dovetail  with  all  the  others ! 

The  entire  count  of  farm-owning  and  farm-renting 
families  for  1890  has  not  yet  been  completed.  But  Mr. 
Geo.  K.  Holmes,  special  agent  in  charge  of  that  depart- 
ment of  the  Census,  has  furnished  some  careful  compu- 
tations in  the  article  quoted  from  in  the  second  chapter. 
His  statement  is  based  on  the  actual  count  in  22  states, 
and  careful  estimates  as  to  the  others.  Prom  his  figures 
in  connection  with  Census  Bulletins,  we  glean  another 
fact.  And,  remember,  his  estimate  would  not  seek  to 

favor  the  view  here  taken,  but  rather  to  oppose  it. 
Look  at  these  comparisons : 
Entire  population  of  the  whole  country  increased  25 

per  cent. 
Rural  population  ( all  outside  of  cities  of  8,000  and 

over )  increased  14  per  cent. 

Urban  population  ( in  cities  of  8,000  and  over)  in- 
creased 61  per  cent. 

Entire  number  of  farm  families  increased  9%  per  cent. 
Farm-owning  families  increased  21/£  per  cent. 
Farm-renting  families  increased  40%  per  cent.  * 
There  is  the  picture !    Look  at  it,  you  miserable  polit- 
ical hucksters  trafficking  in  the  lives,  liberties  and  homes 


*  If  the  reader  cares  for  the  exact  figures,  he  has  them  here. 
Total  population  increased  from  50,155,783  to  62,622,250,  a  gain  of 
12,466,467,  or  25  per  cent.  Rural  population  increased  from  38, 837,- 
236  to  44,286,580,  a  gain  of  5,449,344,  or  14  per  cent.  Urban  pop u- 


94  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

of  your  people !  You  have  driven  the  independent  home- 
owning  people  of  this  country,  in  unnumbered  legions, 
from  country  to  over-crowded  city — from  prosperous 
owners  to  struggling  tenants. 

Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  Labor  Commissioner,  now  in 
charge  of  the  Census  Bureau,  says  in  Extra  Bulletin  No. 
63,  issued  last  December,  that  the  source  for  the  statis- 
tics for  1880  and  1890  are  not  the  same,  since  the  fig- 
ures for  1880  represents  farms  and  those  for  1890  farm 
families,  and  this  may  somewhat  affect  the  comparison. 
Then  he  shows  that  the  number  of  owned  farms  in  the 
22  states  and  territories  considered  had  increased  1  per 
cent  and  the  hired  farms  increased  49  per  cent.  In  the 
Southern  and  Eastern  states  the  number  of  owned  farms 
actually  decreased.  A  majority  of  the  22  states  and 
territories  considered  ( Arizona,  Connecticut,  District  of 
Columbia,  Georgia,  Idaho,  Iowa,  Maine,  Maryland, 
Massachusetts,  Minnesota,  Montana,  Nevada,  New 
Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New  Mexico,  Rhode  Island, 
South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Utah,  Vermont,  Wisconsin 
and  Wyoming),  show  an  actual  decrease  of  farm-own- 
ing families  that  is  frightful,  and  while  taken  as  a  whole 
the  increase  is  only  1  per  cent.  It  takes  the  rapidUr  in- 
creasing population  of  Arizona,  Idaho,  Montana,  New 

hit  ion  inrmiscd  from  11,318,547  to  18,235,070,  a  gain  of  6,017,123, 
orfii  per  ccnl.  Kni-m  families  increased  from  4,008,907  to  4,500,- 
000,  n  ft'iiiii  of  401,098,  or  9}£  per  cent.  Farm-ownipg  families  in- 
from  2,084,306  to  3,060,000,  n  gi\\\\  <>f  75,604,  or  L^  JMT 
Fewrn-renting  families  increased  from  1,024,601  to  1,440,000, 
i  of  4  15, .'WO,  or  40k,  JM 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  FARMERS.  95 

Mexico,  Utah  and  Wyoming,  to  be  added  to  the  older 
states  in  order  to  show  even  one  per  cent  in  farm-own- 
ing families.  All  the  states  and  territories  named  above 
gained  largely  in  tenant  farmers.  Even  the  great  Mid- 
dle West  that  feeds  the  world,  and  the  Sunny  South 
that  blesses  all  with  fruits  and  flowers,  are  degrading 
their  landed  proprietors  to  humiliating  tenantry.  Look 
at  these  figures  and  blush:  From  1880  to  1890 
Georgia  tenant  Farmers  increased  from  62,175  to  102,- 
081 ;  Iowa  from  44,174  to  60,737 ;  Minnesota  from  8,- 
453  to  17,982 ;  South  Carolina  from  47,219  to  72,187; 
Tennessee  from  57,  196  to  76,949 ;  Wisconsin  from  12,- 
159  to  19,436.  Are  we  not  fast  becoming  a  land  of 
paupers  ? 

Western  and  Southern  farmers  must  not  think  that 
they  suffer  alone.  It  makes  no  difference  where  it  is — 
the  picturesque  fields  of  New  England,  the  bottomless 
soils  of  the  Middle  West,  the  cotton  plantations  and 
orange  groves  of  the  South,  the  wheat  farms  of  the 
great  Northwest,  the  fruit  fields  of  the  Pacific,  or  the 
pastoral  hills  and  dales  of  the  North,  all  are  under  the 
ban  of  the  tyranical  Money  Power  that  is  carrying 
every  industry  but  its  own  to  certain  destruction.  The 
writer  lias  many  times  pronounced  his  strictures  on  the 
the  North  Atlantic  states,  and  condemned  the  course 
pursued  by  those  states  in  their  action  on  economic 
questions.  He  will  continue  to  condemn  their  political 
action  as  long  as  the  suffering  people  there  will  permit 
their  political  prostitutes  to  bind  them  hand  and  foot 


96  SEFJD  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

without  protest.  At  the  same  time  he  has  tried  to  be 
understood  as  excepting  the  suffering  people  there  from 
any  charge  of  intended  wrong.  Their  error  is  in  per- 
mitting the  wrongs  to  be  inflicted.  They  haven't 
thought  enough  for  themselves.  They  have  blindly 
gone  on  voting  as  the  bosses  have  directed,  never  think- 
ing they  were  bargaining  away  their  birth-right  cheap- 
er than  Esau  did.  But  the  good  and  suffering  people 
of  the  East  should  know  that  "Evil  is  wrought  by 
want  of  thought  as  well  as  want  of  heart. " 

The  writer  has  long  been  aware  that  while  the  Money 
Power  of  New  England  has  been  drawing  to  those 
states  ten  times  their  share  of  the  wealth  of  the  country, 
yet  that  New  England  had  her  share  of  the  distress  of 
paupers,  convicts,  youthful  offenders,  and  impoverish- 
ed Laborers  and  Farmers,  all  produced,  not  by  any  in- 
herent 'weakness  or  vice  in  the  unfortunate  people,  but 
forced  upon  them  by  infamously  unjust  laws.  Why  the 
oppressed  people  who  endure  the  hardships  there  do  not 
hurl  their  oppressors  from  power  is  one  of  those  mys- 
teries reserved  for  Omniscience. 

In  order  that  the  Northern,  Southern  and  Western 
Farmer  may  see  how  his  suffering  brethren  fare  in  the 
extreme  East,  and  in  order  that  the  brethren  them  selves 
may  understand  their  condition  more  fully,  an  object 
lesson  is  here  given  from  Extra  Bulletin  No.  63.  Look 
at  it.  This  is  of  the  six  New  England  states. 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  FARMERS.  97 

Number  of  owned  farms,  1880 ,189,572 

Number  of  farm-owning  families,  1890 v 165,455 

Decrease,  15  percent 24,117 

Number  of  hired  farms,  1880 17,660 

Number  of  farm-hiring  families,  1890 24,906 


Increase,  41  percent 7,246 

Thus  her  home-owners  were  made  homeless  in  10 
years  to  the  extent  of  24,117.  What  became  of  these 
24  thousand  homes?  They  did  not  all  pass  into  the 
hands  of  tenants,  because  we  find  only  7,246  increase 
there.  Here  are  16,871  farm  homes  unaccounted  for. 
Where  are  they?  Either  abandoned  or  consolidated 
with  other  farms,  pleasing  to  the  fancy  of  some  city 
Capitalist  who  wants  to  revel  in  the  luxury  of  a  large 
estate,  in  harmony  with  the  habits  of  his  European 
model.  When  will  New  England  wake  and  shake  off 
the  horrid  incubus  ? 

The  reader  will  doubtless  be  interested  in  some  speci- 
men profits  on  farming.  We  have  seen  the  profits  of 
other  enterprises.  Let  us  look  at  the  net  returns  from 
farming,  making  no  item  of  "  All  sundries  not  elsewhere 
reported/'  At  a«  recent  meeting  of  the  Cecil,  Maryland, 
Farmers'  Club,  Mr.  Thomas  C.  Bond  presented  some 
figures  oh  the  cost  of  production  of  grain.  His  state- 
ments there  seemed  to  have  jnet  the  endorsement  of  the 
Club,  and  have  attracted  considerable  attention.  It  is 
believed  Mr.  Bond  is  conservative  in  his  statement.  His 
estimated  cost  of  producing  10  acres  of  wheat  in  Mary- 


98  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

land  on  basis  of  hiring  all  labor  at  market  rates  (  which 
is  the  basis  in  each  of  the  following  statements  )  was  as 
follows : 

Cost  of  plowing  10  acres,  1  team  6  days  at  f  3 $  18.00 

Cost  of  first  harrowing,  1  team  1%  days 4.50 

Cost  of  second  harrowing,  1  team  1%  days.... 4.50 

Cost  of  rolling,  1  team  1%  days 4.50 

20  bushels  of  seed  at  75  cents 15.00 

Drilling  wheat,  1  team  1%  days 4.50 

One  man  tending  drill  1%  days 1.50 

Cutting  wheat  with  binder,  1%  days  at  $5 7.50 

2  men  to  set  up  wheat,  1%  days  at  $1.50 4.50 

Man  to  drive  reaper,  1%  days  at  $1 1.50 

Team  hauling  in  wheat,  2  days  at  $3 G.OO 

2  men  loading  and  putting  away,  2  days  at  $1.25 5.00 

Cost  of  threshing,  200  bushels  at  5  cents 10.00 

4  men  taking  away  straw,  1  day  at  $1.25 5.00 

Hauling  wheat  to  market,  1%  days  at  $3 4.50 

Extra  man,  1%  days  at  $1.25 1.88 

2  tons  of  fertilizer  at  $28 5G.OO 

Interest  and  insurance  on  buildings 70.00 

Total  cost  for  10  acres $224.38 

Sold  200  bushels  of  wheat  at  65  cents $130.00 

Sold  10  tons  of  straw  at  $5.. 50.00          180.00 

Net  loss , $  44.38 

It  is  difficult  to  be  able  to  find  much  fault  with  this. 
If  the  critical  reader  should  think  that  Mr.  Bond  is 
farming  too  expensively  he  must  remember  that  Mary- 
land lands  require  expensive  farming.  If  there  is  too 
much  fertilizer,  remember  he  sells  the  straw;  if  too  much 
other  expenses  on  the  one  hand,  notice  the  magnificent 
average  yield,  and  the  price  several  cents  above  New 
York  markeis. 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  FARMERS.  99 

That  is  an  Eastern  estimate.  Having  seen  wheat 
growing  on  the  Potomac,  let  us  look  at  it  on  the  Co- 
lumbia. Mr.  Nathan  Pierce  is  one  of  the  largest,  most 
practical  and  conservative  of  the  Farmers  of  the  mag- 
nificent wheat  country  in  Northeastern  Oregon.  He 
furnishes  specially  for  this  work  a  statement  of  opera- 
tions on  a  section  of  the  famous  Umatilla  lands  as 
follows : 

Cost  of  plowing  640  acres  at  f  1.25, $  800 

Cost  of  preparing  for  planting  at  70  cents 448 

Coot  of  planting  and  seed  at  85  cents 544 

Harvesting  at  $2.50  per  acre 1600 

Cost  of  marketing,  average  haul,  at  2  cents 320 

Taxes  paid  for  1893  aiid  1894  on  farm 275 

Insurance  on  buildings  and  grain 128 

Ordinary  repairs  on  house,  fences,  etc 175 

Sacks  and  shipping  charges 800 

Interest  on  $16,000,  2  years  at  10  per  cent 3200 

Total  expenditure $8290 

Average  crop,  25  bushels  per  acre,  making  a  total  yield  of  16,- 

000  bushels,  worth  in  the  local  markets  34  cents 5440 

Net  loss $2850 

No  one,  it  is  believed,  will  quarrel  with  Mr.  Pierce  for 
excessive  charges.  However,  it  is  desirable  that  his 
brethren  not  so  far  West  should  know  something  of 
wheat  farming  in  far-off  Oregon.  Harvesting  out  there 
means  cutting  with  the  header,  drawn  either  by  an  en- 
gine or  some  20  horses,  threshing,  cleaning  and  sack- 
ing the  wheat  as  it  goes,  laying  it  on  the  ground  and 
leaving  it  there  until  the  farmer  is  ready  to  haul  to  mar- 


100  SEED  TIME  AXD  HARVEST. 

ket.  Taxes  and  Interest  are  charged  for  two  years,  be- 
cause this  crop  is  all  that  will  be  harvested  for  two 
years.  In  lieu  of  fertilizers  the  Oregon  Farmer  lets  his 
land  rest  in  summer  fallow  every  alternate  year,  and 
the  preparing  for  planting  is  in  two  harrowings  given 
the  ground  while  it  rests,  to  kill  the  weeds.  The  bulk 
of  the  Insurance  charged  is  on  the  grain  in  the  fields  be- 
fore harvest.  The  reader  will  see  that  a  combination 
of  cutting,  threshing  and  cleaning  in  one  operation  re- 
quires a  very  ripe  harvest,  which  is  not  infrequently  de- 
stroyed by  great  fires  that  sweep  portions  of  the 
country. 
Mr.  Bond  figures  on  Maryland  corn-farming  thus : 

Plowing  10  acres,  6  days  at  $3 $  18.00 

First  harrowing,  1%  days  at  f 3 4J50 

Second  harrowing,  1%  days  at  f3 4.50 

Rolling,  1%  days  at  |3 3.75 

Marking  out,  2  days  at  $3 6.00 

2  men  planting,  2  days  at  f  1 4.00 

Covering,  team  2  days  at  $2 4.00 

Team  first  working,  4  days  at  f  2 8.00 

Team  second  working,  4  days  at  f2 8.00 

Cutting,  800  shocks  at  1%  cents 12.00 

Husking,  800  shocks  at  IK  cents 12.00 

Hauling  in,  1  team  3%  days  at  |3 10.50 

Hauling  in  fodder,  2%  days  at  f  3... 7.50 

2  men  to  put  away  fodder,  2%  days  at  f  1 5.00 

Shelling  corn,  2  men  3  days  at  f  1 (>.00 

Hauling  to  market (>.()() 

Seed  corn 1.25 

2  tons  fertilizer  at  $28 f>(U)0 

Interest,  and  Insurance  on  buildings 70.00 

Total  cost  of  ten  acres $247.00 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  FARMERS.  101 

Yield  450  bushels  of  corn,  at  50  cents f  225.00 

Yield  1GOO  bundles  of  fodder,  at  3  cents 48.00  273.00 

Net  profit $  26.00 

Does  Mr.  Bond  farm  too  expensively  ?  Maryland  re- 
quires expensive  farming.  But  look  at  his  yield — far 
above  the  average  yield  of  any  state  in  the  Union  for  a 
series  of  years.  His  selling  price  is  several  cents  above 
New  York  quotations.  He  is  more  than  fair — enough 
beyond  fair  to  more  than  wipe  out  the  profit. 

Mr.  Geo.  W.  Beer  is  one  of  the  best  farmers  in  Fulton 
County,  Illinois.  He  confidently  believes  that  he  lives 
in  the  best  part  of  the  best  state  in  the  Union,  and  prob- 
ably cannot  get  up  much  discussion  on  that  point.  Not 
in  harmony  with  the  writer  in  his  views  on  economic 
questions,  he  certainly  is  not  prejudiced  in  favor  of  the 
position  here  taken.  He  has  kindly  furnished  for  this 
publication  his  estimate  of  the  outlay  and  the  income 
from  corn  culture  in  his  section  of  the  country,  as 
follows : 

Cost  of  plowing  100  acres $  150.00 

preparing  for  planting 25.00 

planting,  including  seed 33.00 

cultivating 250.00 

gathering  and  cribbing  crop 150.00 

marketing  ( average  distance  to  haul) 125.00 

taxes  on  land  for  1  year 40.00 

ordinary  repairs  on  fences,  etc 37.00 

Interest  on  $7,500,  1  year,  7  per  cent... 525.00 

Total  cost  of  100  acres  of  corn $1335.00 

Yield,  4500  bushels  of  corn,  at  27  cents 1215.00 

Net  loss $  120.00 


102  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

Mr.  Beer's  estimate  of  yield  seems  high.  It  certainly 
is  higher  than  the  average  yield  for  a  series  of  years  in 
his  own  great  state.  However,  he  is  figuring  on  the 
best  land — land  reasonably  worth  $75  per  acre — and 
therefore  puts  the  yield  above  the  average  of  his  state 
or  even  his  county  for  a  series  of  years.  If  the  reader 
should  say  that  he  allows  nothing  for  fodder  he  must 
notice  that  he  charges  nothing  for  cutting  it ;  if  he  al- 
lows nothing  for  fodder  he  must  notice  that  he  charges 
nothing  for  fertilizers,  and  even  Illinois  land  will  wear 
out  in  time  if  starved. 

Mr.  James  K.  Polk  Barker  is  one  of  the  thrifty  and 
substantial  farmers  of  Wy andotte  County,  Kansas,  liv- 
ing about  5  miles  from  Kansas  City.  His  part  of  the 
country  is  thus  seen  to  be  very  favorably  situated  with 
reference  to  market.  Although  at  the  present  more  of 
a  fruit  farmer  than  a  grain  farmer,  he  is  well  posted 
from  life-long  experience  with  all  the  phases  of  land  cul- 
ture. He  tells  us  the  result  on  100  acres  of  land  in  his 
neighborhood,  one-half  planted  in  corn  and  one-half  in 
wheat,  as  follows : 

Cost  of  plowing |  125.00 

"  preparing  for  planting 20.00 

"  planting  50  acres  of  corn  and  seed 1 5.00 

"  planting  50  acres  of  wheat 10.00 

"  seed  wheat 80.00 

u  man  and  team  GO  days  cultivating  corn 1  SO. 00 

"  gathering  1500  bushels  of  corn 00.00 

u  harvesting  when  I ,  $1 .25  per  acre G2.50 

"  IhivshingHOO  bushels  wheat,  from  shock 82.00 


SEED'  TIME  OF  THE  FARMERS.  103 

"     6  men  and  teams  hauling  to  machine 18.00 

"     22  men  one  day  at  $1.50 33.00 

"     taxes  for  one  year 45.00 

"     ordinary  repairs  on  fences,  etc 15.00 

"     hauling  to  market,  1500  bushels  corn  at  5  cents 75.00 

"     hauling  to  market,  800  bushels  of  wheat  at  5  cents,  40.00 

Interest  on  $8,000  invested  in  farm,  8  per  cent 640.00 

Total  cost  50  acres  corn  and  50  acres  wheat $1,400.50 

Yield,  1500  bushels  of  corn  at  30  cents $450.00 

800  bushels  of  wheat  at  50  cents 400.00         850.09 

Net  loss ....$550.50 

Mr.  Barker  credits  nothing  to  the  account  for  straw 
or  fodder,  nor  charges  anything  for  fertilizers.  This 
should  be  a  fair  off-set.  It  is  not  probable  that  much 
has  been  omitted  Li  the  showing.  If  the  reader  thinks 
the  yield  is  too  small,  he  should  take  notice  that  it  is 
considerably  above  the  state  average  for  the  past  ten 
years. 

Texas  furnishes  an  interesting  example  in  Cotton  cul- 
ture in  that  great  state.  Mr.  T.  S.  DeArmand  of  Ne- 
varro  County,  writes:  "I  have  placed  the  crop  high, 
but  our  best  farmers  have  made  an  average  of  a  half 
bale  per  acre  for  the  past  ten  years.  I  want  to  give 
full  estimate.  I  have  put  the  cultivation  low.  I  give 
the  price  of  cotton  and  seed,  as  seed  is  now  a  large  item 
in  the  crop.  I  count  1600  pounds  to  make  a  bale  of  500 
pounds  and  pay  the  toll,  including  the  bagging  and 
ties/'  Here  are  Mr.  DeArmand's  figures  on  one  acre  of 
cotton  culture : 


104  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

Preparing  ground  for  planting $  2.00 

Planting  and  seed 65 

Cultivating 4.50 

Gathering  crop 6.00 

Marketing  ( average  distance  to  haul ) 2.50 

Rent  of  cotton  land 4.00 

Bagging  and  ties 35 

Cost  of  one  acre  of  cotton $20.00 

Yield,  one-half  of  500  pound  bale  at  6%  cents $16.25 

Seed  from  same 2.50        18.75 

Net  loss  on  one  acre  of  cotton $  1.25 

It  may  be  a  matter  of  regret  that  Mr.  DeArmand  did 
not  go  more  minutely  into  details.  But  he  has  evident- 
ly gone  far  enough  to  show  that  cotton  culture  based 
on  the  reasonable  value  of  land  and  labor  is  not  profit- 
able at  the  current  market  rates  of  6%  cents  per  pound. 
Good  lands  peculiarly^adapted  to  the  growing  of  cot- 
ton \vere  the  most  highly  valued  lands  before  vicious 
financial  legislation  had  destroyed  the  value  of  the  crop. 
Now  we  can  see  that  no  more  than  reasonable  wages 
need  be  expected.  The  Census  reports  for  1890  show 
the  average  yield  of  Texas  to  be  0.37  of  a  bale,  while 
Mr.  DeArmand's  county,  one  of  the  most  productive  in 
the  state,  averaged  0.41.  In  1880  the  county  average 
was  less.  So  we  can  readily  believe  the  yield  given 
above  to  be  large  enough. 


SEED  TIME  OF  THK  TRADESMEN.  105 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


NO  CONCENTRATION  FOR  TRADESMEN. 


The  reader  has  seen  in  the  preceding  chapters  the 
great  gains  that  have  resulted  to  Capital  invested  in 
Railroads,  in  Banks  and  in  Manufactures.  He  is  also 
well  satisfied  from  his  every  day  observations  of  the 
conditions  surrounding  him,  and  from  a  careful  reading 
of  the  foregoing  pages  that  the  Laborers  and  Farmers 
of  the*land  have  not  been  accumulating  wealth.  There 
is  another  class  that  have  suffered  equally  with  the 
Laborers  and  Farmers.  The  Tradesmen  of  the  land 
have  been  meeting  their  Waterloo  as  well  as  the  others. 
They,  too,  have  been  doing  business  on  a  falling  mar- 
ket in  many  of  the  staple  goods  they  have  handled, 
brought  about  by  the  contracted  currency  of  the  coun- 
try. The  blight  is  on  all  industries  and  all  businesses, 
except  those  whose  fabulous  aggrandizement  of  wealth 
has  become  great  enough  to  make  laws  for  their  protec- 
tion, no  matter  what  the  cost  to  all  others. 

Whatever  demand  there  may  be  for  railroad  legisla- 
tion that  should  compel  these  great  corporations  to  ac 


106  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

knowledge  themselves  servants  of  the  people  in  operat- 
ing the  great  highways  of  the  country's  commerce,  to 
the  end  that  the  producers  may  find  a  way  to  market 
at  reasonable  cost,  railroad  capital  has  been  potent 
enough  to  defeat  any  proposed  reforms.  Whatever  re- 
strictive usury  laws  may  have  been  demanded  by  the 
people  regulating  the  rates  of  interest,  or  demanding  a 
greater  issue  of  money  on  which  to  transact  the  busi- 
ness of  the  country,  enhance  the  value  of  all  the  pro- 
ducts of  industry,  or  cheapen  the  rates  of  interest  to  the 
borrower,  the  banking  capital  of  the  country  has  been 
strong  enough  to  defeat  desirable  legislation,  and  scarce 
money,  low  prices  and  high  interest  continue  to  crush 
the  people.  Whatever  pleas  may  have  gone  from  the 
producers  and  consumers  to  their  law-makers  praying 
to  be  protected  from  the  greed  of  combines  and  trusts 
that  have  been  constantly  forcing  down  the  value  of 
raw  materials  and  forcing  up  the  price  of  manufactured 
goods,  there  always  has  been  an  abundance  of  manu- 
facturing capital  ready  for  the  work  of  protecting  it- 
self under  the  false  pretence  of  protecting  American  Lab- 
or. The  Laborers,  Farmers  and  Tradesmen  outnumber 
the  Railroad  owners,  Bankers  and  Manufacturers  as 
the  poor  have  always  outnumbered  the  rich.  The  vote 
of  the  weak  is  as  effective  as  the  vote  of  the  strong,  if  the 
weak  will  only  exercise  it  as  wisely.  "  And  must  they 
all  be  hanged  that  swear  and  lie  ?  "  asks  the  precocious 
little  Macduff.  "  Every  one,  "  his  mother  assures  him. 
"Who  must  hang  them?"  "Why,  the  honest  men." 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  TRADESMEN.  107 

"  Then  the  liars  and  swearers  are  fools,  for  there  are 
liars  and  swearers  enow  to  beat  the  honest  men  and 
hang  up  them."  But  it  is  quite  probable  that  the  wick- 
ed men  of  the  Macduffera  were  no  more  submissive  to 
the  honest  men,  than  the  poor  people  of  to-day  are  to 
the  rich.  It  was  about  the  same  measure  of  self-sacri- 
fice in  either  case. 

It  was  said  that  Tradesmen  suffered  from  falling 
markets.  And  truly  they  did.  But  their  chief  suffering 
came  from  others  who  suffered  first.  Their  suffering 
was  chiefly  a  borrowed  suffering,  as  the  moon's  light  is 
a  borrowed  light.  The  Tradesman  who  bought  a  thou- 
sand overcoats  to  sell  a  thousand  workmen  was  unable 
to  meet  his  bills  if  by  reason  of  non-employment  only 
five  hundred  could  buy.  The  thousand  Sunday  dresses 
for  the  workmen's  wives,  together  with  hats,  bonnets, 
gloves,  shoes  and  the  myriad  of  other  articles  that  find 
ready  and  profitable  sales  with  good  times  and  steady 
employment,  are  left  on  hand  when  Labor  is  idle,  and 
the  Tradesman  suffers  w4th  the  suffering  of  others.  The 
grocer's  sales  to  the  Farmer  and  the  merchant's  sales  to 
the  Farmer's  wife  will  be  meager  indeed  if  by  reason  of 
the  low  prices  of  farm  products  money  must  be  borrow- 
ed to  pay  taxes  on  the  farm  and  interest  on  the  farm 
mortgage.  When  the  merchant  and  grocer  are  no  long- 
er able  to  sell  to  the  Farmer,  they  will  begin  to  feel  the 
stress  of  hard  times  that  will  soon  lead  to  failure.  And 
these  failures  of  the  retail  Tradesmen  will  reach  the 
wholesale  dealer  and  he  suffers  with  the  rest.  Finally 


108  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

the  trouble  reaches  the  Manufacturer.  He  does  not  fail. 
Why  should  he  ?  A  series  of  years  of  unparalleled  profits 
has  placed  him  in  a  position  where  he  can  be  absolute- 
ly impervious  to  the  distress  of  others.  He  simply  stops 
his  machinery,  and,  utterly  regardless  of  their  fate,  dis- 
charges his  employees,  calmly  folds  his  arms  and 
waits  for  a  revival  of  business  when  the  people  shall 
have  partially  recovered  from  the  ten  years  extortion 
he  has  practiced  on  them.  The  choir  then  sings  that 
soul-stirring  anthem  born  of  lofty  statesmanship  and 
self-sacrificing  patriotism,  commencing,  "Tin!  Tin! 
American  tin! " 

Carnegie  thereupon  makes  a  gloriously  patriotic 
speech  assuring  the  country  that  the  greatest  blessing 
that  can  possibly  befall  any  nation  is  the  accumulation 
of  colossal  fortunes  in  the  hands  of  a  few — the  greater 
the  fortune  and  the  fewer  the  fortunate  possessors,  the 
better.  Then  all  the  people  shout.  Statesmen  appeal 
to  the  voters  to  stand  firmly  by  the  ever  glorious  prin- 
ciples of  their  respective  party,  and  march  again  to 
glory,  power  and  honor  under  the  "  lily-white  banner" 
of  pure  and  unsullied  Democracy  or  Republicanism  as 
the  case  may  be,  and  with  no  material  difference  which. 
And  so  another  great  victory  is  achieved,  the  spoils  of 
office  belong  to  the  spoilsmen,  and  the  people  at  large 
enter  upon  a  four  year's  term  of  unresisting  submission 
to  the  same  system  of  public  plunder  that  characterized 
the  previous  term. 

Unfortunately,  perhaps,  the    distress  of  Tradesmen 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  TRADESMEN.  109 

is  not  a  subject  of  Census  inquiry.  The  Superintendent 
has  given  us  no  information  as  to  the  number  of  busi- 
ness men  whose  homes  and  fortunes  have  been  wrecked 
by  the  wicked  financial  policy  that  has  been  pursued. 
But  The  Bradstreet  Company  is  considered  in  all  mat- 
ters pertaining  to  mercantile  affairs  to  be  entirely  re- 
liable. Having  been  engaged  in  commercial  reporting 
for  the  past  40  years  or  more,  they  are  very  familiar 
with  all  the  phases  of  financial  panics. 

Their  record  for  1893  shows  some  very  startling  fig- 
ures. For  the  six  years  last  past  their  record  is  as 
follows ; 

YEAR.  No.  FAILURES.                     ASSETS.  LIABILITIES. 

1888  10,587  $61,999,911  $120,242,402 

1889  11,719           70,596,769  140,359,490 

1890  10,673           92,775,625  175,032,836 

1891  12,394  102,893,000  193,178,000 

1892  10,270           54,774,106  108,595,248 

1893  15,508     .  231,486,730  382,153,676 

Does  the  reader  admire  the  record  ?  There  has  been 
no  other  year  in  the  history  of  the  country  when 
the  number  of  failures  or  the  liabilities  equaled  the  ter- 
rific business  slaughter  of  1893.  It  was  the  climax  of 
the  many  years  of  property  destruction  that  had  pre- 
ceded it. 

The  conspiracy  of  Capital  has  been  going  on  for  years. 
Its  red  hand  and  bloody  eye  has  become  the  menace  of 
all  our  industries.  The  Legislation  it  has  bought  has 
become  the  charnel  house  for  the  dead  hopes  of  the  peo- 


110  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

pie.  Through  its  influence  the  circulating  medium  of 
the  country  has  been  contracted  to  the  destruction  of 
all  values,  except  on  all  such  commodities  as  mono- 
polies, trusts  and  combines  could  control.  Fancy  sala- 
ries, controlled  by  Capital,  have  advanced  enormous- 
ly, while  the  articles  of  productive  industry  with  which 
such  salaries  must  be  paid,  have  decreased  in  a  greater 
degree.  This  thought  can  best  be  illustrated  in  com- 
paring the  salaries  and  prices  that  prevailed  for  a 
few  years  after  the  war  with  the  salaries  and  prices 
now.  Based  on  the  average  New  York  prices  of  the 
former  period  we  can  ascertain  that  great  Lincoln's 
salary  as  President  could  be  paid  with  the  price  of  10,- 
000  bushels  of  wheat;  or  20,000  bushels  of  corn;  or  50,- 
000  pounds  of  wool;  or  1,000  barrels  of  mess  pork;  or 
500  head  of  cows;  or  125  horses.  To  pay  Cleveland's 
salary  would  require  the  proceeds,  based  on  the  present 
New  York  markets,  of  75,000  bushels  of  wheat;  110,- 
000  bushels  of  corn;  500,000  pounds  of  wool;  4,000 
barrels  of  mess  pork;  2500  head  of  cows,  or  625  horses.  * 
Or,  to  put  this  another  way,  if  the  articles  whose 
values  were  required  to  pay  Cleveland's  salary  had 
been  sold  at  the  prices  of  30  years  ago,  they  would 
have  produced  the  following  magnificent  sums,  \vhich 
may  be  said  to  be  Cleveland  salaries.  The  wheat 
needed  to  pay  Cleveland,  if  sold  at  the  prices  of  30  years 

*  The  writer  is  indebted  to  Mr.  I.  K.  Dean,  of  New  York,  for  (lie 
idea  and  most  of  (lie  figures  in  Iliis  illustration,  in  Iris  plea  to  "Save 
Hie  American  Home." 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  TRADESMEN.  Ill 

ago,  would  have  yielded  $187,500;  corn,  $137,500; 
wool,  $250,000;  mess  pork,  $100,000;  cows,  $125,000; 
horses,  $125,000.  This  is  what  Cleveland's  salary 
amounts  to  paid  in  products  at  the  prices  of  Lincoln's 
time.  Lincoln's  salary  was  $25,000.  He  was  worth 
it  to  the  people.  Cleveland  gets  from  6  to  10  times  as 
much,  measured  by  the  value  of  products.  He  is  worth 
it — to  the  enemies  of  the  people. 

While  this  destruction  of  the  people's  interests  has 
been  going  on,  the  Railroads  have  kept  up  their  tariff 
rates,  forcing  the  Producer  to  pay  as  high  transporta- 
tion charges  as  ever.  The  Bankers  have  charged  as 
high  usury  as  ever  in  all  cases,  and  much  higher  as  a 
general  rule,  forcing  payments  in  four  or  five  times  the 
quantity  of  products  that  were  formerly  required.  The 
Manufacturer  has  been  shrieking  for  a  higher  tariff 
schedule  in  order  that  he  may  force  up  the  value  of 
manufactured  products  and  force  down  the  value  of  all 
necessary  raw  materials,  his  only  desire  being  greater 
profits  to  himself,  for  the  protection  of  American  plunder- 
ers.  And  while  all  these  evil  and  destructive  practices 
have  been  going  on,  the  Railroad  owners,  Bankers  and 
Manufacturers  have  been  systematically  avoiding  their 
just  share  of  the  burden  of  taxation,  by  the  peculiar 
methods  known  best  to  themselves,  and  imposing  the 
additional  burden  on  those  unable  to  bear  it. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  climax  has  come  at  last. 
Indeed  it  is  strange  that  it  came  not  sooner.  The 
grandest  commentary  on  the  greatness  of  this  country 


112  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

is  that  the  people  have  been  able  to  exist  at  all,  under 
all  the  systematic  plundering  that  has  been  practiced 
on  them.  Reduced  to  poverty  by  a  designing  tyrannical 
Money  Power,  the  American  people  have  shown  an 
astonishing  vitality  in  living  through  their  political 
disgrace  and  disease. 

The  producers,  unable  to  buy  the  products  they  need 
because  of  the  poverty  to  which  they  have  been  reduced, 
the  dry  goods  merchant,  the  grocer,  the  clothier,  and 
the  tradesman  generally,  are  driven  to  bankruptcy  by 
reason  of  small  sales.  And  these  Tradesmen  in  turn 
distress  their  wholesale  merchants  who,  in  their  turri^ 
follow  the  retail  dealer  to  financial  ruin.  And  these 
failures  in  turn  induce  the  Manufacturer  to  shut  down 
his  plant  to  await  better  times.  His  workman  becomes 
idle,  helpless,  hopeless,  moneyless.  As  a  factor  in  com- 
merce he  ceases.  Without  money  he  cannot  buy.  Oth- 
er dealers  feel  the  loss  of  his  trade  and  they  fail.  The 
country  feels  the  general  panic  and  all  is  utter  chaos. 
These  are  the  conditions  in  1894,  brought  about  by 
the  greed  of  gain  that  has  actuated  the  Money  Power 
of  the  land  in  fashioning  the  legislation  that  has  well- 
nigh  ruined  a  once  happy  and  prosperous  people.  And 
yet  they  have  the  hardihood  to  tell  the  people  that 
Labor  is  idle  because  of  threats  to  lighten  the  robber 
tariif  that  has  done  more  than  any  other  cause  to  curse 
the  industries  of  the  people.  The  Tradesmen  must 
array  themselves  with  the  Producers  and  the  Laborers 
if  they  hope  for  success.  They  will  get  no  assistance 


SEED  TIME  OF  THE  TRADESMEN.  113 

from  the  Railroad  owners,  Bankers  and  Manufacturers. 
Unless  they  shall  awaken  to  the  danger  that  threatens 
all  of  the  common  people,  and  help  in  the  reform  of 
things  wrong,  it  will  not  be  long  until  they,  too,  will 
be  hunting  for  work,  and  protesting  their 

"Hunger  for  bread,  not  thirst  for  revenge." 


114  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  MORTGAGE  CURSE  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  CONCENTRATION. 


Extra  Census  Built  tin  No.  64  was  issued  last  Decem- 
ber by  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in  charge  of  the  Bureau. 
Some  of  its  facts  will  doubtless  be  of  interest  to  the 
reader,  in  view  of  the  many  publications  in  the  news 
papers  that  have  been  made  on  this  subject,  some  cor- 
rect, but  generally  erroneous.  The  statistics  for  this 
Bulletin  were  prepared  by  Mr.  George  K.  Holmes, 
special  agent  of  the  Census  Bureau  for  this  purpose. 
The  details  of  the  mortgage  indebtedness  were  taken  by 
Census  agents  in  33  states  and  territories.  Upon  these 
details  the  Bureau  estimates  the  debt  for  the  remaining 
states  and  territories.  We  find  in  this  official  bulletin 
the  folio  wing  damaging  facts: 

The  mortgage  debt  of  the  United  States  on  the  1st  of 
January,  1890,  was  6  billion  dollars.  That  terrific  debt 
has  grown  in  the  10  years  156  per  cent.  Does  the  read- 
er comprehend  that  statement  ?  Look  at  it  in  the  light 
of  other  growths.  Population  increased  25  per  cent; 


HARVEST  OF  THE  USURERS,  115 

wealth  of  the  entire  country  increased  45  per  cent;  the 
mortgage  indebtedness  of  the  people  156  per  centl 

Increase  in  population  HHi 

Increase  in  wealth  HBBHB 

Increase  in  mortgage  debt  IBHHBHBHHKflBBHQBBHi 

What  a  picture!  And  yet  the  old  parties  "point  with 
pride"  and  solemnly  resolve  "that  our  debts  represent 
our  investments."  It  has  been  a  wonderful  period  for 
investments — for  home  investments.  That  is  to  say, 
the  Producer,  realizing  no  adequate  returns  for  his  pro- 
ducts— compelled  to  grow  them  at  a  loss,  as  shown  on 
the  testimony  of  Iowa's  great  Democratic  Governor — 
achieves  nothing  for  himself  but — losses.  And  these 
losses  he  invests — invests  in  a  mortgage  on  his  home. 
And  so  the  country  prospers.  The  Producer  has  gain- 
ed something.  He  simply  had  a  home  before.  He  has 
a  home  decorated  with  a  mortgage  now.  He  is  gain- 
ing. 

Do  not  think  that  the  Farmer  is  hurt  alone.  Not  by 
any  means.  The  business  man  in  the  city  who  has  in- 
vested his  money  in  buildings  with  the  hope  of  fair  re- 
turns in  rents;  the  mechanic  or  Laborer  whose  hard 
work  and  sacrificing  economy  in  the  years  past  enabled 
him  to  acquire  a  modest  home ;  the  Farmer  who  became 
the  owner  of  a  home  by  inheritance  or  homestead — it 
matters  not  where  situated,  by  whom  owned  or  how 
acquired,  the  breath  of  the  blighting  Upas  of  Monopoly 
is  over  them  all.  The  curse  of  the  oppressor  is  on  the 
sweating  brow  of  Industry.  No  city,  town,  village,  or 


116  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

country  district  is  exempt.  This  bulletin  shows  it. 
The  people  of  the  cities  who  belong  not  to  the  three 
great  ruling  and  ruining  classes  suffer  as  much  as  the 
people  of  the  country.  A  little  over  one-third  (34  per 
cent)  of  the  mortgage  indebtedness  existing  January 
1st,  1890,  was  on  acre  property,  and  a  little  less  than 
two-thirds  (66  per  cent)  was  on  lots.  Therein  is  a 
hope.  The  people  of  the  cities,  who  are  now  unable  to 
rent  their  property  for  enough  to  pay  taxes  and  make 
repairs,  are  beginning  to  realize  that  something  is 
wrong.  They  are  just  rubbing  their  eyes  after  waking 
from  a  deep  dream  of  peace  to  find  that  they,  too,  have 
been  ruined  by  a  policy  that  destroys  all  but  the  des- 
troyer. 

In  previous  lectures  and  essays  the  writer  has  tried 
to  show  that  while  the  North  Atlantic  States  are  re- 
sponsible for  all  the  ills  we  suffer  because  the  Railroad, 
Bank  and  Manufacturing  despoilers  of  the  Nation  nearly 
all  live  within  those  states,  yet  that  the  masses  of  the 
people  there  are  no  more  exempt  from  the  general  ruin 
than  are  the  people  of  the  other  states.  The  per  capita 
mortgage  indebtedness  of  the  several  states  will  show 
the  truth  of  this.  The  bulletin  now  under  considera- 
tion gives  the  per  capita  of  such  debt  for  every  man, 
woman  and  child  residing  in  each  of  the  several  states. 
Here  are  those  states  owing  $100  or  more  for  each  per- 
son* New  York,  $268 ;  District  of  Columbia,  $226 ; 
Colorado,  $206;  California,  $200;  Kansas,  $170; 
Minnesota,  $155;  Massachusetts,  $144;  Nebraska, 


HARVEST  OF  THE  USURERS.  117 

$126;  Pennsylvania,  $117;  Connecticut,  $107;  Rhode 
Island,  $106;  Iowa,  $104;  Illinois,  $100.  This  is  the 
per  capita  debt  for  each  man,  woman  and  child  as  ex- 
hibited by  the  mortgage  record.  Estimating  5  persons 
for  the  average  family,  the  reader  can  see  the  depth  of 
the  curse. 

The  compilers  of  Census  Bulletin  No.  64  say:  "What 
the  amount  of  existing  real  estate  mortgage,  debt  in  the 
United  States  was  in  1880  it  is  impossible  to  determine 
except  roughly  by  a  process  of  reasoning.  In  1890, 
January  1st,  the  debt  was  about  $6,000,000,000,  one- 
sixth  of  this  amount  being  an  estimate  for  states  not 
tabulated.  As  already  pointed  out,  a  progressive 
movement  characterized  the  debt  incurred  during  the 
decade  under  consideration,  and,  if  it  may  be  assumed 
that  the  life  of  mortgages  and  the  proportion  of  partial 
payments  have  not  changed  materially  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end  of  the  decade,  the  following  formula 
may  be  regarded  as  approximately  sound:  The  debt 
incurred  in  1889  is  to  the  debt  incurred  in  1880  as  the 
debt  existing  January  1,  1890,  is  to  the  debt  existing 
January  1,  1880. "  By  this  formula  Mr.  Holmes  con- 
cludes that  the  real  estate  mortgages  existing  in  1880 
amounted  to  2,343  million  dollars,  increasing  in  10 
years  to  6000  millions,  a  gain  of  3,657  million  dollars, 
or  156  per  cent!  That  ought  to  be  quite  sufficient  to 
satisfy  the  most  exacting  and  extreme  greed  of  all  the 
conspirators. 

Real  estate  mortgages,  $6,000,000,000!    An  increase 


118  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

of  $3,657,000,000!  Per  cent  of  increase,  156!  Tenant 
Farmers,  1,440,000!  An  increase  of  415,399!  Per 
cent  of  increase,  40%!  How  long  will  it  require  for  the 
Big  Three  to  become  the  owners  of  all  the  land?  How 
many  years  shall  we  wait  until  the  tenant-farmers  out- 
number the  farm-owning  farmers?  Then  how  long 
until  all  shall  be  tenants?  These  questions  are  all  sus- 
ceptible of  •mathematical  demonstration.  The  day  is 
coming  for  the  accomplishment  of  all  these  things  unless 
the  people  rouse  from  their  lethargy. 

When  the  conspirators  took  hold  of  matters  it  was 
necessary,  in  order  to  facilitate  their  work  of  spoliation, 
that  new  laws  be  passed  for  the  collection  of  debts. 
Then  it  was  that  the  several  legislatures  began  to  de- 
part from  the  ancient  landmarks,  and  find  some  new 
means  for  the  speedy  transfer  of  title  by  forced  sale. 
It  was  formerly  the  practice  that  property  exposed  to 
forced  sale  should  be  appraised  by  disinterested  persons 
thereto  appointed  by  the  court,  and  that  it  must  be 
sold  for  not  less  than  two-thirds  or  three-fourths  of  the 
appraised  value,  as  the  case  may  be.  The  conspirators 
did  not  want  to  pay  so  large  a  portion  of  the  value  as 
that.  They  knew  the  property  must  sooner  or  later 
fall  into  their  hands,  and  they  wanted  to  get  it  as  cheap- 
ly as  possible.  It  was  then  they  began  to  get  the  laws 
amended.  They  wanted  to  be  permitted  to  sell  with- 
out appraisement.  And  so  it  was  provided  that  when 
a  debtor  would  put  into  his  note  or  mortgage  the 
words,  "  appraisement  waived/'  or  their  equivalent, 


HARVEST  OF  THE  USURERS.  119 

then  in  any  judgment  that  may  be  rendered  to  enforce 
collection  the  real  estate  of  the  debtor  may  be  sold 
\vithout  appraisement  to  the  highest  bidder,  at  what- 
ever price  may  be  offered.  And  there  are  those  who 
justify  that  legalized  robbery.  They  say  the  debtor 
need  not  make  the  waiver  unless  he  wants  to.  Ah !  but 
he  must.  He  is  compelled  to  borrow  money.  The  lend- 
er says  he  must  waive  the  appraisement,  and  he  must. 
And  so  the  waiver  is  put  into  the  instrument,  default  is 
made  in  the  payment,  judgment  is  rendered,  order  of 
sale  is  issued,  another  advertisement  of  Sheriffs  sale 
graces  the  local  paper,  the  day  of  sale  comes,  the  lender 
is  on  hand  to  bid  just  as  little  or  just  as  much  as  he 
sees  fit.  As  the  Sheriff  gets  a  commission  on  the  selling 
price  the  larger  the  bid  the  more  the  cost.  The  cheaper 
the  creditor  buys  it  the  less  will  be  the  cost  to  pay,  and 
the  more  of  judgment  he  will  have  left  to  keep  hanging 
over  the  debtor  awaiting  further  property  in  his  hands. 
It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  for  the  creditor  to  bid  as 
small  as  one-tenth  of  the  debt.  If  judgment  was  for 
$1,000  he  may  bid  $100  for  the  land.  Nobody  else  bids. 
The  creditor  buys  it,  the  $100  bid  by  him  is  credited  on 
the  judgment,  $900  is  still  left  unpaid  by  virtue  of 
which  the  creditor  may  levy  on  the  personal  property 
of  the  debtor,  or  may  wait  until  he  becomes  possessed 
of  some.  The  farm  the  man  mortgaged  for  one-third 
its  value  is  gone,  and  still  the  debt  is  unpaid. 

When  that  celebrated  money  lender  of  Venice  was  the 
plaintiff  in  a  foreclosure  suit  the  judge  said  to  him : 


120  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

This  bond  doth  give  thee  here  no  jot  of  blood ; 

The  words  expressly  are  "  a  pound  of  flesh :" 

Take  then  thy  bond,  take  thou  thy  pound  of  flesh  ; 

But,  in  the  cutting  it,  if  thou  dost  shed 

One  drop  of  Christian  blood  thy  lands  and  goods 

Are,  by  the  laws  of  Venice,  confiscate 

Unto  the  state  of  Venice. 


That  was  better  law  than  our  law  of  to-day.  Or  else 
it  was  a  more  equitable  administration  of  the  law  by  a 
more  humane  court.  The  judge  of  to-day  is  dangerous- 
ly likely  to  say : 

I  think  this  bond  doth  give  thee  flesh  and  blood, 
Although  the  words  are  writ  "a  pound  of  flesh." 
Take  then  thy  bond,  take  thou  thy  pound  of  flesh ; 
Take  all  he  has  and  call  it  just  a  pound, 
And  with  it  take  the  blood  and  hide  and  hair 
Arid  watch  his  carcass  till  it  grow  thee  more 
To  satisfy  thy  wants. 

-. 

The  writer  thinks  that  inasmuch  as  the  mortgagee 
loaned  his  money  four  or  five  years  ago  on  the  basis 
that  the  farm  or  the  lot  was  worth  at  least  twice  as 
much,  generally  three  times  as  much,  as  the  amount 
loaned,  he  ought  now  to  be  satisfied  to  take  the  farm 
for  the  debt,  and  square  accounts.  He  should  not  be 
permitted  to  take  the  property  and  still  hold  a  judg- 
ment against  the  debtor  for  a  large  unpaid  balance  to 
threaten  and  harrass  him  as  long  as  he  lives,  finally 
driving  him  through  discouragement  to  the  grave.  He 
should  be  satisfied  with  the  "  pound  of  flesh  "  that  he 


HARVEST  OF  THE  USURERS.  121 

contracted  for.  The  Producers  are  not  a  dishonest  set 
of  people.  They  do  not  desire  to  avoid  payment  of 
their  just  obligations.  They  want  to  pay  their  debts 
and  pay  them  according  to  the  bond.  They  do  not  see, 
and  now  that  they  are  waking  from  their  long  confid- 
ing slumber,  they  never  will  see,  the  justice  of  being 
compelled  to  pay  their  obligations  in  money  two  or 
three  times  dearer  than  they  contracted.  If  when  they 
borrowed  it  they  could  pay  a  thousand  dollar  debt 
with  a  thousand  bushels  of  wheat,  they  do  not  be- 
lieve it  is  just  to  take  2500  bushels  for  that  purpose 
now;  if  25  cows  would  pay  the  debt  when  they  borrow- 
ed, they  do  not  like  to  use  60  cows  for  that  purpose 
now;  if  6, 000  pounds  of  cotton  would  pay  the  debt 
then,  why  be  compelled  to  use  16,000  pounds  now  ?  It 
is  very  oppressive  to  the  Farmer  to  see  15  horses  sold 
to  pay  the  debt  now,  when  only  6  or  7  would  have 
been  necessary  when  he  contracted  the  debt. 


122  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 


CHAPTER    X. 


THE   CRIME    AGAINST  SILVER. 


Of  all  the  suicidal,  ruinous  and  infamous  legislation 
that  has  blasted  and  blighted  this  or  any  other  na- 
tion the  crime  against  silver  is  certainly  one  of  the  deep- 
est. What  was  the  cause  that  led  to  it?  England 
many  years  prior  to  1873  had  demonetized  silver,  and 
had  induced  many  other  nations  to  follow  her  example. 
Her  national  life,  builded  on  greed  and  blood,  had  made 
her  the  creditor  nation  of  the  earth.  It  was  then  she 
held  in  her  capacious  grasp  the  securities  of  the  world. 
It  would  be  eminently  profitable  for  England,  under 
those  circumstances  to  increase  the  purchasing  power 
of  money — when  the  world  held  the  production  and  she 
held  the  gold.  Looked  at  from  the  stand-point  of  self- 
ishness it  was  the  natural  thing  for  Great  Britain  to 
want.  Viewed  from  the  stand-point  of  self-preservation 
it  was  the  most  suicidal  thing  for  a  debtor  nation  to  do. 
And  yet  it  was  done. '  Silver  was  demonetized,  increas- 
ing all  obligations  by  destroying  one  part  of  the  money 
and  making  them  payable  alone  in  the  other. 

Great  Britain  at  that  time  possessed  India — poor, 


HARVEST  OF  THE  GOLDBUGS.  123 

wronged,  plundered  and  vanquished  India.  At  that 
time  unprofitable  and  unproductive  India.  But  there 
was  a  chance  for  Great  Britain  in  India.  Moses  could 
"  take  of  the  water  of  the  river,  and  pour  it  upon  the 
dry  land,  and  it  became  blood  upon  the  dry  land."  And 
the  Englishman  found  that  he  could  take  of  the  water 
of  the  river,  and  pour  it  upon  the  dry  land,  and  it  be- 
came wheat  upon  the  dry  land.  There  were  plenty  of 
Indian  farmers  whose  agriculture  was  primitive  and 
crude.  The  wooden  mold-board  plow  and  the  white 
bulls  were  then  as  now  the  means  of  planting;  the  sickle 
and  the  flail  finished  the  harvest.  But  India  land 
watered  by  irrigation  from  the  Indus,  the  Ganges  and 
other  of  its  great  rivers,  would  produce  wheat  and  cot- 
ton, and  become  a  competitor  with  the  United  States 
in  the  markets  of  the  world.  Could  England  make  it 
profitable  to  develope  the  vast  plains  of  that  historic 
country  ?  The  Indian  farmer  was  willing  to  grow  a 
bushel  of  wheat  for  so  much  silver.  His  coin  was  an 
Indian  rupee.  It  was  all  the  money  he  knew  or  cared 
to  know.  "A  primrose  on  the  river's  brim,  a  yellow 
primrose  "was  to  him,  and  it  was  nothing  more."  A 
rupee  to  the  Indian  farmer,  a  silver  rupee,  was  to  him, 
and  it  was  nothing  more — and  nothing  less.  It  was 
wholly  immaterial  to  him  whether  his  rupee  was  made 
from  silver  that  cost  his  British  customer  $1.30  an 
ounce  or  60  cents  an  ounce.  It  was  a  silver  rupee,  and 
was  a  satisfactory  measure  of  value  to  him.  By  just 
so  much  as  the  Englishman  could  cheapen  silver,  by 


124  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

that  same  process  he  could  cheapen  Indian  wheat  and 
cotton,  and  with  them  American  wheat  and  cotton. 
The  scheme  worked,  and  for  twenty  years,  more  and 
more  thoroughly  every  year,  the  India  farmer  has  been 
made  the  competitor  of  the  American  farmer  in  grow- 
ing wheat  and  cotton — made  the  competitor  because  the 
United  States  made  it  possible  for  him  to  be. 

And  so,  since  1873,  the  American  farmer  has  been 
compelled  to  raise  his  wheat  and  cotton  and  sell  them 
on  a  falling  market.  The  price  of  these  two  commodi- 
ties have  marched  in  a  sort  of  a  lock-step  with  degrad- 
ed silver  through  all  these  twenty  years.  There  are 
those  who  say  they  can  see  no  existing  relation  between 
the  price  of  silver  on  the  one  hand  and  wheat  and  cot- 
ton on  the  other.  They  cannot  see  it  because  they  will 
not.  But  most  certain  it  is  that  while  silver,  as  meas- 
ured by  the  gold  standard,  has  decreased  in  value  since 
1873  from  about  $1.30  an  ounce  to  its  present  price  of 
about  60  cents,  the  price  of  wheat  in  the  New  York 
market  as  averaged  by  the  year  has  fallen  from  almost 
precisely  the  same  maximum  to  the  same  minimum, 
and  cotton  has  gone  down  from  20  cents  to  8  cents. 
Of  course  there  have  been  some  little  divergencies  along 
the  line  of  march,  but  the  tendency  has  ever  been  down- 
wards, and  precisely  the  same  downward  distance  has 
been  reached  by  all.  It  is  not  claimed  for  a  moment 
that  these  two  commodities  alone  have  been  affected 
by  the  adverse  silver  legislation.  It  has  fixed  the  prices 
to  a  greater  or  less  degree  for  all  commodities.  Silver 


.HARVEST  OF  THE  GOLD  BUG 'S.  125 

debasement  has  done  its  work  all  along  the  entire  line 
of  the  productive  industries.  Mr.  Edward  B.  Howell, 
in  a  splendid  article  in  the  October  number  of  the  "  Re- 
view of  Reviews/'  shows  the  frightful  depreciation  of 
all  our  leading  commodities.  His  figures  are  from  the 
Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United  States,  issued  by  the 
Bureau  of  Statistics  under  direction  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury.  His  excellent  article,  with  elaborate 
charts  showing  the  utter  ruin  wrought  to  the  Ameri- 
can Producer,  should  be  placed  in  the  hand  of  every 
student  of  economic  questions.  From  this  article  we 
see,  among  the  other  startling  facts,  that  the  cereal 
crop  of  the  United  States,  being  1539  million  bushels  in 
1873,  worth  916  million  dollars,  had  increased  50  per 
cent  as  to  quantity  in  1878,  but  wac;  worth  less  than 
the  crop  of  1873.  Up  to  1888,  the  last  year  in  which 
the  figures  are  given,  the  cereal  crop  had  increased  over 
1873  to  the  extent  of  109  per  cent,  while  the  value  in- 
creased only  44  per  cent. 

Perhaps  no  better  illustration  exists  showing  the 
sympathy  between  silver  and  our  grain  products  than 
was  furnished  in  1890.  In  January  of  that  year  silver 
was  worth  97  cents  per  ounce,  wheat  75  cents  and  cot- 
ton about  10.  In  July  the  Sherman  bill  was  passed — a 
poor  excuse,  but  better  than  none.  Immediately  silver, 
as  a  commodity,  advanced  to  $1.21  per  ounce,  wheat 
to  about  $1.10  and  cotton  to  about  12%  cents. 

From  the  discovery  of  America  to  1849  the  world's 
product  of  silver  had  been  more  than  double  that  of 


126  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

gold — 68%  per  cent  of  silver  to  31%  per  cent  of  gold. 
This  on  authority  of  the  monetary  conference  of  1876. 
At  that  time  no  man  in  America  ever  heard  of  the  exist- 
ence of  too  much  silver — that  it  could  not  circulate  on  a 
parity  with  gold. 

In  1849  the  gold  mines  of  California  were  discovered, 
and  in  1851  those  of  Australia.  These  mines  began  to 
pour  forth  their  wonderful  wealth  of  the  precious  metal. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  wrorld's  history  the  value  of  the 
gold  product  far  exceeded  the  silver  product.  By  1873 
the  relations  existing  between  silver  and  gold  had  ma- 
terially changed.  In  that  year  the  silver  proportion 
had  fallen  to  55  per  cent  and  the  gold  proportion  had 
risen  to  45  per  cent.  Then  it  was  that  American  states- 
men found  that  there  was  too  large  a  proportion  of 
silver  to  be  able  to  circulate  with  gold  on  a  parity.  It 
would  maintain  itself  very  well  at  68%  per  cent,  but 
was  no  good  when  it  had  fallen  to  55  per  cent  of  the 
money  metal.  And  so  silver  was  demonetized  in  the 
interest  of  Great  Britain  and  our  own  gold  bug  cormo- 
rants, to  the  destruction  of  nine-tenths  of  the  industries 
of  our  people. 

Silver  demonetized !  When  ?  At  a  time  when  the 
great  mines  of  this  country  had  just  been  discovered. 
At  a  time  when  the  wealth  of  the  world  lay  at  our  feet. 
At  a  time  when  we  heard  the  wonderful  stories  of  our 
fabulous  silver  mines.  At  a  time  wrhen  the  output  of 
our  gold  mines  was  decreasing  millions  of  dollars  per 
annum.  At  a  time  when  the  creditor  began  to  demand 


HARVEST  OF  THE  GOLD  BUGS.  127 

gold  and  the  debtor  was  getting  ready  to  pay  the  silver 
he  had  promised  to  pay.  At  a  time  when  the  borrower 
had  bared  his  bosom  to  pay  the  pound  of  flesh  and  the 
usurer  demanded  the  blood  with  it. 

As  before  stated,  it  was  natural,  viewed  from  a  pure- 
ly selfish  standpoint  for  Great  Britain  to  want  silver 
demonetized.  It  was  natural  for  the  money  power  of 
this  country,  always  subservient  to  Great  Britain  and 
forming  the  most  hateful  aristocracy  on  earth,  to  \vant 
silver  demonetized.  It  is  natural  now,  from  the  same 
standpoint,  for  the  same  classes  to  adhere  to  their  form- 
er policy,  and  it  is  despicable,  dishonorable  and  infam- 
ous for  the  people  to  submit  to  the  wrong. 

Look  at  the  picture !  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies 
produce  more  gold  than  any  other  nation  on  earth,  and 
comparatively  little  silver.  The  United  States  produces 
more  silver  than  any  other  nation,  and  considerable 
gold.  Great  Britain's  gold  product  exceeds  her  silver 
product  each  year  in  value  more  than  3  to  1.  The  sil- 
ver product  of  the  United  States  exceeds  in  value  the 
gold  product  each  year  by  more  than  2  to  1.  Great 
Britain  can  well  afford  to  destroy  her  one  part  of  silver 
in  order  to  double  the  value  of  her  three  parts  of  gold. 
The  United  States  destroys  herself  when  she  destroys 
her  two  parts  of  silver  to  enhance  the  value  of  her  one 
part  of  gold.  If  this  country  must  do  something  in  the 
way  of  demonetization,  let  it  try  to  be  as  wise  as  Eng- 
land— destroy  the  lesser  in  order  to  build  up  the  great- 
er. If  she  must  destroy  either  of  the  precious  metals, 


128  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

in  the  name  of  American  justice  let  her  rather  destroy 
the  33  million  dollars  of  annual  gold  product  and  save 
her  75  million  dollars  of  silver.  This  would  be  wisdom 
compared  to  the  other  act,  and  infinitely  less  ruinous  to 
the  interests  of  the  nation. 
An  object  lesson :  before  demonetization,  British  Gold 

After  demonetization,  British  Gold,  doubling  in  value, 
appears  thus  :  BBBnBBBHHBBBBHBiBiiB 

British  gain  %,  thus :  •^••H 

Before  demonetization,  United  States  Gold  and  Silver 

appear  thus :  moBHK  snBBasBBflBBHBB 

After  demonetization,  U.  S.  Gold,  doubling  in  value, 

appears  thus :  BHaB&HBsanaB 

Great  Britain,  with  her  colonies,  is  a  great  wheat  pro- 
ducer, and  yields  but  little  corn.  The  United  States 
produces  more  corn  than  any  other  nation,  as  well  as 
wheat.  What  if  England,  in  order  to  enhance  the  value 
of  ber  wheat  for  the  benefit  of  her  farmers,  should  forbid 
the  use  of  corn  as  an  article  of  food  for  man  or  beast? 
That  ought  to  raise  the  value  of  her  \vheat,  as  the  other 
has  raised  the  price  of  her  gold.  But  should  the  United 
States  follow  suit  ?  Should  she  destroy  her  billion  and 
a  half  bushels  of  corn  production  in  order  to  advance 
the  price  of  her  half  billion  bushels  of  wheat  product? 
And  I  submit  it  would  be  as  wise  for  the  United  States 
to  defoodetize  the  largest  product  of  her  farms  as  it  is 
for  her  to  demonetize  the  largest  product  of  her  mines. 


HARVEST  OF  THE  GOLD  BUGS.  129 

They  say  we  are  pleading  for  silver  which  benefits 
alone  the  mine  owner.  There  is  not  an  agricultural 
state  in  the  Union  but  would  receive  more  benefit  from 
silver  coinage  than  could  possibly  result  to  any  mining- 
state.  The  enhanced  prices  which  one  great  producing 
state  would  get  for  its  products  would  benefit  it  more 
than  all  the  benefits  that  could  flow  to  all  the  mines  in 
the  United  States. 

They  tell  us  the  United  States  must  follow  the  lead  of 
the  European  nations  in  these  matters  of  financial  legis- 
lation, because  we  cannot  go  alone.  The  United  States 
is  great  enough,  and  its  industries  sufficiently  diversi- 
fied, to  be  able  to  set  the  pace  for  the  whole  world.  Let 
this  nation  with  a  big  N,  say  to  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth :  "  This  white  metal  is  money — it  is  our  money — 
we  mined  it — we  made  it — it  is  good  enough  for  us. 
Take  it  or  leave  it.  And  in  the  meantime  be  assured 
that  we  can  get  along  very  comfortably,  thank  you." 
This  is  wisdom  and  patriotism  and  protection  with  a 
big  P,  that  beats  all  the  tariff  schedules  for  that  pur- 
pose that  were  ever  dreamed  of.  It  is  the  sort  of  pro- 
tection that  people  want,  and  the  protection  they  will 
have,  if  they  would  worthily  say : 

We  are  the  sons  of  sires  who  baffled 

Crowned  and  mitered  tyranny ; 
They  defied  the  field  and  scaffold 

For  their  birth-right,  so  will  we. 


130  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


RECAPITULATION  AND   PROPOSED   REMEDIES. 


The  writer  realizes  that  he  has  gone  far  beyond  his 
original  intentions  in  writing  this  treatise.  It  was  in- 
tended to  write  as  briefly  as  possible  of  some  of  the  ex- 
isting evils.  In  order  to  make  such  a  book  readable  it 
must  be  short,  for  people,  hungering  for  bread,  will  not 
take  much  time  to  read.  And  yet  when  one  sets  out  to 
write  earnestly  on  these  matters  there  is  such  a  vast 
field  of  wrongs  to  be  righted  that  he  can  scarcely  stop. 
This  must  be  the  author's  apology  for  the  unintended 
length  he  has  given  this  discussion. 

The  reader  has  seen  the  wonderful  Concentration  of 
Wealth  into  the  favored  sections  of  the  Union  as  shown 
in  Chapter  I.  He  has  seen  the  equally  wonderful  Con- 
centration into  the  hands  of  the  favored  classes,  as 
shown  in  Chapter  II. 

In  Chapter  III  he  has  seen  many  curious  things  con- 
nected with  the  Railroads  of  the  country.  The  increas- 
ed efficiency  of  Labor,  the  great  profits  of  Capital,  the 
wild  stock-watering  schemes,  the  cost  of  building  rail- 


A  HARVEST  FOR  THE  PEOPLE.  131 

roads  now,  the  present  capitalization,  the  extortion 
practiced  on  the  Producers,  and  many  other  particulars. 
It  was  there  seen  that  this  business  with  $4,000,000,000 
of  Capital,  as  represented  by  their  original  cost  when 
labor  and  materials  were  high,  in  the  last  year  of  the 
Census  decade  made  net  profits  of  $360,000,000.  That 
is,  one-fifteenth  of  the  wealth  of  the  country  invested  in 
Railroads,  took  to  itself  nearly  one-fifth  of  the  wealth- 
gain. 

Chapter  IV  was  a  consideration  of  the  Banking  inter- 
ests. There  it  was  seen  that  even  National  Banks,  the 
peculiarly  fostered  and  favored  institutions  of  the  Nation, 
had  been  rendered  unsafe  in  the  productive  sections  of 
the  country  by  the  destruction  of  the  productive  indus- 
tries ;  that  their  successful  money-making  powers  had 
been  such  that  their  stock  had  risen  all  the  "way  from 
par  for  the  least  valuable  up  to  40  dollars  for  1,  for  the 
most  valuable ;  that  their  net  earnings  per  year  are  18 
per  cent,  and  that  with  less  than  one-sixtieth  of  the  en- 
tire wealth  of  the  country  they  are  annually  taking  to 
themselves  one-tenth  of  the  entire  wealth-gain. 

In  Chapter  V  \ve  have  a  general  consideration  of  the 
Manufacturing  interests  of  the  country.  The  magnifi- 
cent profits  of  the  10  principal  cities  and  of  the  20  prin- 
cipal industries ;  the  great  increase  in  the  capital  invest- 
ed in  the  business;  some  comparisons  of  their  profit 
with  the  profit  of  their  employees ;  a  light  touching  of 
the  tariff  question,  and  the  final  discovery  from  actual 
official  figures,  that  about  one-ninth  of  the  wealth  of  the 


132  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

Nation  invested  in  these  great  fields  of  industry  took  to 
itself  three-fifths  of  the  wealth-gain  for  1890. 

Here  the  reader  -may  find  a  profitable  object  lesson 
which  should  be  forever  fixed  upon  his  mind  until  the 
wrongs  complained  of  shall  be  righted.  Remember  the 
entire  wealth  of  the  Nation  is  estimated  to  be  about 
$60,000,000,000  of  actual  value.  The  gain  from  1880 
to  1890  was  $2,000,000,000  per  year.  Then  the  mat- 
ter will  stand  thus : 

The  Railroads  of  the  country,  with  4  billions  of  the 
National  wealth,  should  have  gained  in  1890  this  pro- 
portion of  the  entire  'wealth-gain  gm 

The  Banks,  with  1  billion  of  the  National  wealth, 

should  have  gained  in  1890  this  proportion  of  the  entire 

wealth-gain  I 

They  did  gain  BBB 

The  Manufacturers,  with  6%  billions  of  the  National 

"wealth,  should  have  gained  in  1890  this  proportion  of 

the  wealth-gain  mw 

They  did  gain  BEHHBBHBrasaHHHranBHBI 

All  other  people  outside  of  the  three  favored  classes, 

with  about  48  billions  of  the  entire  National  wealth, 

should  have  gained  this  proportion  of  the  wealth-gain 

They  did  gain  m 

That  is  to  say,  all  the  people  outside  of  the  three  fav- 
ored classes,  with  about  48  billions  of  wealth  were 


A  HARVEST  FOR  THE  PEOPLE.  133 

able  to  accumulate  no  more  of  the  wealth-gain  than 
the  National  Banks  accumulated  with  1  billion.  The 
advantage  in  favor  of  the  Banks  was  about  48  to  1. 
That  ought  to  be  more  than  enough  to  satisfy  any 
greed. 

Or,  all  the  people  outside  of  the  three  favored  classes, 
with  about  48  billions  of  wealth,  were  able  to  accumu- 
late but  little  more  than  half  as  much  as  the  Railroads 
accumulated  with  4  billions. 

Or,  all  the  people  outside  of  the  three  favored  classesy 
with  about  48  billions  of  wealth,  were  able  to  accumu- 
late about  one-sixth  as  much  as  the  Manufacturers  ac- 
cumulated with  6V2  billions.  Does  the  reader  not  think 
it  about  time  to  call  a  halt  ? 

After  seeing  these  things,  and  seeing  them  from  the 
official  figures,  and  after  contrasting  the  excessive  prof- 
its of  Railroad,  Banking  and  Manufacturing  interests 
with  the  losses  of  Labor,  Farming  and  Trade  as  seen 
in  Chapters  VI,  VII  and  VIII,  the  reader  ought  to  be 
able  to  find  the  cause  and  be  willing  to  apply  some 
remedy. 

What  shall  that  remedy  be  ?  The  writer  is  not  very 
particular  on  that  question.  Looking  back  over  the 
past  the  intelligent  student  of  economic  questions  can 
discover  the  causes  that  have  produced  all  the  evil  re- 
sults. His  remedy  should  be  generally  to  undo  every- 
thing in  financial  legislation  that  has  been  done  in  the 
last  twenty  years.  A  new  financial  policy  must  be  the 
heroic  treatment  for  a  desperate  disease.  It  is  all  the 


134  SEED  TIME  AXD  HARVEST. 

platform  the  people  need.  Upon  this  they  should  agree. 
Everything,  for  the  past  twenty  years  has  been  done 
for  the  benefit  of  the  favored  Classes  as  against  the  op- 
pressed Masses.  The  wrongs  done  by  vicious  legislation 
can  only  be  cured  by  undoing  them.  The  rights  undone 
can  only  be  remedied  by  doing  them.  As  the  Masses 
have  been  oppressed  for  twenty  years  it  will  only  be  re- 
storing them  to  their  own  to  let  them  find  favorable 
legislation  for  twenty  years  to  come.  The  same  power 
that  wrongfully  legislated  property  away  from  the  peo- 
ple can  and  should  legislate  it  back  again.  This  is  not 
injustice.  It  is  the  acme  of  fair-dealing  and  impartial 
justice.  It  will  not  do  to  let  the  despoiler,  shielding 
himself  forever  under  the  law  which  he  made,  protect 
himself  in  wrong-doing. 

To  carry  out  this  proposed  platform  and  do  every- 
thing of  financial  legislation  in  an  opposite  manner  in 
which  it  has  been  done  we  find  the  following  proposed 
remedies : 

Instead  of  depreciating  the  value  of  the  results  of  all 
productive  industry  by  contracting  the  currency,  they 
should  be  restored  to  their  former  values  by  expansion 
of  the  circulating  medium. 

Instead  of  wealth  belonging  to  him  who  has  the 
powrer  to  take  it,  we  should  recognize  the  rights  of  him 
who  creates  it.  "  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou 
eat  bread  "  must  not  be  longer  construed  as  authority 
for  one  to  eat  the  bread  that  many  have  earned. 

Railroads    are   public    highways,  not  private.    The 


A  HARVEST  FOR  THE  PEOPLE.  13.~> 

state  has  no  power  to  confer  on  Railroad  corporations 
the  right  to  take  private  property — that  is,  your  home 
for  their  roadway— unless  it  is  taken  for  public  purposes. 
The  policy  of  the  Railroads  owning  and  operating  the 
Government  should  be  changed  into  that  of  the  Gov- 
ernment owning  and  operating  the  Railroads,  as  its 
other  public  highways,  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  people. 

Instead  of  the  National  Banks  absolutely  controlling 
the  financial  affairs  of  the  Nation  by  expanding  or  con- 
tracting the  currency  at  will,  a  National  currency 
should  be  issued  by  the  general  government,  without 
the  intervention  of  National  Banks. 

Instead  of  collecting  the  revenue  of  the  Government 
wholly  from  the  consumer  without  reference  to  his  abili- 
ty to  pay,  as  has  been  done  under  the  "Protection" 
system,  a  graduated  income  tax  should  be  imposed  in 
order  that  the  rich  may  bear  a  more  equitable  portion 
of  the  burdens  of  taxation. 

Instead  of  bestowing  the  public  lands  of  the  country 
on  the  great  corporations  as  has  been  done  in  the  past, 
all  such  lands  that  have  not  passed  into  the  hands  of 
bonatide  settlers  should  be  reclaimed  and  held  for  settle- 
ment by  the  homeless  poor  of  the  country. 

The  rights  of  Labor  must  be  more  thoroughly  recog- 
nized than  ever  before.  Improved  machinery  is  con- 
stantly lessening  the  time  necessarily  consumed  in  man- 
ufacture. Labor-saving  machinery  always  lessening 
human  toil,  Labor  should  receive  its  proportionate 
share  of  the  benefits  in  reduced  hours,  thereby  the  better 


136  SEED  TIME  ASD  HARVEST. 

fitting  itself  for  more  exalted  citzenship.  Men  say  this 
class  of  legislation  cannot  be  made  effective.  Why  not? 
The  world  furnishes  no  precedent  for  such  legislation, 
we  are  told.  History  furnishes  no  precedent  for  such  a 
world  as  we  have  now.  Since  the  opening  era  of  steam, 
the  .changes  wrought  are  greater  than  all  others  since 
the  birth  of  Christ.  It  requires  new  legislation  to  meet 
new  wants  in  a  new  world.  Americans  boast  of  the 
high  wages  of  American  Labor.  If  its  wages  are  higher 
it  is  because  its  accomplishment  is  greater.  This  is 
shown  in  the  quotation  from  Governor  Larrabee  on  a 
preceding  page.  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine,  Secretary  of 
State  in  his  letter  to  Congress  on  the  Commercial  Rela- 
tions of  the  United  States,  in  1881,  said ; 

"  Undoubtedly  the  inequalities  in  the  wages  of  P^nglish  and  Ameri- 
can operatives  are  more  than  equalized  by  the  greater  efficiency  of  the 
latter  and  their  longer  hours  of  labor.  If  this  should  prove  to  be  a 
fact  in  practice,  as  it  seems  to  be  proven  from  official  statistics,  it 
would  be  a.  very  important  element  in  the  establishment  of  our  abili- 
ty to  compete  with  England  for  our  share  of  the  cotton-goods  trade 
of  the  world." 

And  it  seems  to  be  a  fact  in  practice.  Dr.  E.  R.  L. 
Gould,  one  of  the  Professors  of  Johns  Hopkins  Universi- 
ty, is  one  of  the  most  accomplished  statisticians  in  the 
United  States.  Dr.  Gould  spent  some  years  in  charge 
of  the  European  side  of  the  Labor  Question,  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  United  States  Department  of  Labor.  In  an 
excellent  magazine  article  recently  published,  he  says : 


A  HARVEST  FOR  THE  PEOPLE.  137 

''Speaking  broadly  and  generally,  one  may  say  that  labor  which 
is  paid  by  the  day  always  receives  a  much  higher  compensation  in  the 
United  States  than  in  any  foreign  country.  When,  however,  piece- 
work prevails,  that  is,  when  quantity  and  not  time  is  made  the  unit 
of  payment,  we  frequently  find  that  the  rates  established  do  not  vary 
considerably.  Take,  for  example,  the  price  paid  weavers  for  weaving 
print  cloth.  In  Massachusetts  it  is  about  40  cents  per  100  yards ;  in 
England  the  price  is  practically  the  same ;  in  France  44  cents  for  a 
similar  unit  of  measure ;  and  in  Germany  43  cents.  But  the  daily 
earnings  of  weavers,  weaving  this  particular  class  of  fabric  varies  in 
somewhat  the  following  proportions:  in  Massachusetts  $1.15;  in 
England  $1.02 ;  in  France  60  cents ;  in  Germany  55  cents.  The  ex- 
planation of  the  fact  lies  in  this,  that  the  American  weaver  runs  six 
looms ;  the  British  four  at  a  higher  rate  of  speed ;  the  French  as  a  rule, 
two ;  and  the  German  the  same  number.  Here  is  a  case,  and  there 
are  not  lacking  many  others,  which  personal  investigation  may  easily 
disclose,  showing  that  enhanced  earnings  are  due  to  greater  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  laborer,  who  under  these  circumstances  becomes  a 
cheaper  workman  to  his  employer." 


The  Railroads  and  the  Manufacturers  of  the  country 
employ  about  6  million  wage-earners.  Suppose  the 
hours  of  labor  were  reduced  sufficiently  to  give  employ- 
ment to  2  millions  more  who  belong  to  the  great  army 
of  unemployed.  This  could  be  done  without  reducing 
wages,  and  still  the  Railroads  and  Manufacturers 
would  get  more  than  their  share  of  the  profits  of  the 
country. 

Instead  of  taxing  out  the  products  of  pauper  labor  of 
Europe  by  the  alleged  Protection  of  American  Labor  in 
high  tariff  robbery,  bar  out  undesirable  labor  by  such 
legislation  as  will  be  in  fact  a  protection. 

Instead  of  fostering  corporations,  trusts  and  com- 


138  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

bines,  repeal  or  radically  amend  all  laws  for  the  crea- 
tion of  corporations,  and  let  such  vast  enterprises  as 
are  too  large  for  the  individual  be  operated  by  the  state 
or  municipality.  Make  it  a  felony  for  any  man  or  set 
of  men  to  enter  into  a  conspiracy  with  other  men  in 
forming  any  trust  or  combination  looking  to  the  con- 
trol of  any  part  of  the  commerce  of  the  country.  Such 
enactment  honestly  passed  and  faithfully  enforced 
would  protect  the  Producer  from  the  arbitrary  prices 
fixed  by  monopolists.  With  such  laws  Iowa  meat 
.packers  would  not  testify  as  they  did  before  a  Senator- 
ial Investigating  Committee  four  years  ago  that  Kansas 
City  packers  paid  an  agreed  price  per  head  for  all  live 
stock  that  would  naturally  go  to  the  Iowa  houses,  pro- 
vided the  Iowa  packers  would  close  their  plants.  With 
such  restrictive  laws  the  Kansas  City  packers  would  no 
longer  find  it  necessary  to  charge  up  to  one  year's  ope- 
rating expenses  more  than  3  million  dollars  as  "  Sun- 
dries not  elsewhere  reported. " 

Instead  of  dishonoring  and  debasing  one  of  the  largest 
products  of  the  industries  of  the  country — the  one  min- 
eral of  greater  value  than  all  the  other  minerals  com- 
bined— let  the  people  of  all  the  producing  sections  of  the 
country  demand  the  full  remonetization  of  silver  on  the 
basis  of  16  to  1,  and  accept  no  compromise  with  the 
Money  Power.  Let  the  people  demand  free  coinage  of 
silver,  not  because  it  is  the  best  means  of  relief,  but  be- 
cause it  is  most  speedy.  Then,  perhaps,  after  the  people 
shall  have  thought  along  these  lines  (  and  they  are  think- 


A  HARVEST  FOR  THE  PEOPLE.  139 

ing  as  they  never  have  thought  before )  they  will  see  how 
much  more  sensible  it  would  be  for  the  Government  to 
make  a  piece  of  paper  a  dollar  rather  than  a  piece  of 
metal.  Instead  of  wasting  a  day  to  find  a  bit  of  silver 
from  which  to  make  a  dollar,  let  the  workman  apply 
his  energy  to  the  useful  employment  of  building  roads 
and  bridges,  and  receive  the  best  dollar  for  it  that  ever 
was  made — a  paper  one,  based  on  the  faith  of  the  great- 
est nation  on  earth.  But  until  that  time  let  the  waste 
of  labor  go  on  in  finding  silver — the  next  best  thing  to  a 
paper  dollar.  But  it  will  be  a  "fiat"  dollar  all  the 
same.  So  will  a  gold  dollar,  or  any  other  dollar  made 
of  any  other  metal  or  thing.  So  long  as  the  "fiat"  of 
the  Government  is  necessary  to  make  it  a  dollar  so  long 
it  will  continue  to  be  "fiat,"  just  as  thoroughly  as  the 
little  piece  of  paper. 

But  the  purpose  of  this  work  is  to  present  facts,  not 
the  opinions  of  the  writer.  A  brave  people  knowing 
their  rights  will  ever  dare  to  maintain  them.  Knowing 
their  \vrongs  they  will  find  a  way  to  right  them.  What 
the  forged  arm  was  for  the  defense  of  the  Englishman 
the  intelligent  ballot  should  be  to  the  American.  Seven- 
ty years  ago  the  great  Shelly  told  his  countrymen  of 
their  \vrongs  and  the  way  to  right  them.  They  were 
brave  words  to  fling  in  the  face  of  royalty : 

The  seed  ye  sow  another  reaps : 
The  wealth  ye  find  another  keeps; 
The  robes  ye  weave  another  wears; 
The  arms  ye  forge  another  bears . 

Sow  seed, — but  let  no  tyrant  reap ; 
Find  wealth, — let  no  imposter  heap ; 
Weave  robes, — let  not  the  idle  wear; 
Forge  arms, — in  your  defense  to  bear. 


CONCLUSION.  141 


CONCLUSION. 


A  SCENE  FROM  A  NEW  PLAY. 


Place,  State  Ho  use  Steps,  Boston.   Time,  February  20,  A.  D.  1S94. 

Enter  a  thousand  hungry  citizens,  without  staves,  clubs  or  other 
weapons. 

Citizen  Swift.  We  have  made  propositions  for  work  on  state 
farms  and  factories.  Something  must  be  done.  The  case  is  urgent. 
We  cannot  go  on  starving.  We  have  come  for  assistance  to  the  place 
where  the  laws  are  made. 

Go  v.  Greenhalge.    To  the  Executive  you  come, 
And  he's  a  servant  too.    The  Governor 
Declares  his  hand  unable  is  to  help 
The  poor.    The  major  part  of  all  our  men 
Have  food,  and  hunger  not.    Shall  these  be  made 
to  bear  the  burden  of  your  lives,  and  give 
You  work  to  win  your  bread,  while  they  receive 
No  gain?    It  must  not  be.    I'd  fain  do  all 
That  man  may  do,  but  strictly  in  the  law. 
'Tis  better  far  that  men  should  starve  and  save 
The  law  than  that  our  laws  should  bend  to  man. 
?T  would  be  recorded  for  a  precedent, 
And  many  an  error  by  the  same  example 
Would  rush  into  the  state.    It  cannot  be. 

Citizen  Casson.  In  times  like  these  precedents  should  be  thrown 
to  the  winds.  While  the  officials  are  stickling  over  precedents  the  un- 
employed are  losing  their  respect  for  the  laws.  If  this  official  and 


142  SEED  TIME  AND  HARVEST. 

governmental  neglect  continues,  I  don't  like  to  look  forward  to  what 
may  happen. 

Gov.  G.    Make  me  no  threats.    From  you  and  such  as  you 
No  terrors  come.    In  me  and  such  as  me 
No  terrors  lodge.    I  am  too  great  for  fear. 
You  ask  for  work  which  this  great  state  can't  give. 
A  government  of  laws,  not  men,  this  is, 
And  laws,  not  men,  our  sacred  care  must  be. 
No  public  work — no  help — the  state  can  give 
Unless  it  need  the  work — not  you  the  wage ; 
Unless  some  benefit  it  gains — not  you ; 
Unless  it  hath  the  weal— not  you  the  woe  ;* 
What's  your  further  seeking.    'Tis  told  you  dared 
To  say  that  from  these  halls  myself  and  my 
Associates  shall  be  driven. 

Citizen  Swift.    I  said  it  should  be  done  with  the  ballot. 

Gov.  G.    I  like  not  words  like  these.    Obnoxious  are 
Their  sounds,  and  not  for  toleration  here. 
I  warn  you  now,  if  trouble  comes,  yourself 
Responsible,  shall  drink  the  dregs  of  woe. 

Exeunt  from  the  State  House  the  hungry  citizens  who  hold  a 
further  meeting  on  the  Commons  and  thence  supperless  to  bed. 

Scene  2.  Place,  Banquet  Hall.     Time,  The  Night  of  Feb.  20,  1894. 
The  curtain  rises  slowly,  discovering  the  Life  Insurance  Presi- 
dents at  their  annual  banquet,  a  blaze  of  brilliant  light  falling  on 
rich  furnishings  and  sumptous  viands.    The  band  plays,  "  Hail  to  the 
Chief"    Enter  Governor  Greenhalge. 

Gov.  G.    Myself  immortal  I  have  made. 
From  stormy  scenes  I  come.    JTis  here  I  come 
To  ask  support  from  order-loving  men. 
Such  rights  we  freely  give  to  ev'ry  child 
Of  man  that  lives,  that  he  an  equal  chance 
Miiy  have  with  all.    And  when  this  banquet  board 

*  The  author  condemnsthe  law  more  strongly  than  he  condemns  the  Governor. 
The  state  can  take  from  the  citixc:i  his  libert y.  his  labor— even  his  life.  It  should 
hare  power  to  grant  tbe  means  of  living  to  those  whose  life  it  hath  the  power  to 
take. 


0 
CONCLUSION.  143 

I  view,  it  boiling  sets  my  blood  to  think 
That  any  hungry  man  may  feel  or  say 
Our  Massachusetts  is  unjust  to  men. 

The  Presidents  all  shout. 

Gov.  G.    And  when  I  see  dissentious  crowds  like  those 
I  met  to-day,  I  ask  myself  how  long 
Before  our  state  shall  give  its  answer  forth 
That  men  must  uncomplaining  stand  or  fall, 
And  not  repine  because  they  think  our  laws 
Unequal  or  unfriendly  are  to  them. 

The  Presidents  all  shout  again. 

Go  v.  G.    We  simply  want  our  loyal  men  and  those 
Who  Lives  insure,-  and  business  men,  to  stand 
By  Massachusetts  now.    And  you  are  they 
On  whom  we  lean,  and  leaning  thus  on  you, 
We'll  pass  through  all  our  troublous  times  as  through 
The  mists  the  sunbeams  pass 

The  Presidents  all  cheer  three  times  three.  The  banquet  finished, 
they  go  forth  to  mingle  again  with  the  busy  world  in  their  honest 
vocations  of  suborning  perjury  and  hiring  witnesses  in  order  to 
defeat  such  claims  for  death-losses  as  are  large  enough  to  warrant 
the  effort.  Boston  continues  to  prosper,  but — her  hungry  are  still 
unfed. 


It  is  not  claimed  that  the  above  is  a  verbatim  report 
of  Governor  Greenhalge's  two  Boston  speeches.  It  is 
insisted,  however,  that  the  spirit  of  his  remarks,  both 
at  the  state  house  and  at  the  banquet,  on  that  eventful 
day,  has  been  faithfully  portrayed.  If  the  reader  thinks 
the  author  has  drawn  too  much  on  his  imagination  for 
the  above  scenes,  let  him  send  for  a  copy  of  the  Boston 
Herald,  of  February  21,  1894. 


A  BEAUTIFUL  PICTURE. 

And  here  all  Aryan  pathways  meet.  The  circuit  of  the 
globe  complete,  the  severed  branches  here  unite,  and  Aryan  blood 
through  common  veins  again  commingling  flows;  and  this  is 
Arya  land. 

Where  nothing  was  but  wilderness  now  mighty  empires  are, 
whose  every  subject  is  a  king.  *  *  And  by  their  light  who 
runs  may  read.  Or  it  bring  weal  or  it  bring  woe,  to  all  the 
world,  the  time  shall  come,  when  men,  not  man,  shall  govern 
men,  and  every  crown  shall  disappear. 

Who  conquers  worlds  shall  find  a  way  to  conquer  war  itself 
at  last,  and  balm  shall  be  for  ever  wound. 

— L.  W.  KEPLINGER. 


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